The Pride Team's Meltdown
by pokeball645
Summary: Travel back in time with the Pride Team as they help Manny, Sid, Diego and three new herd members escape from a dangerous flood while they keep a sharp eye out for trouble like Sneasel's group! *Takes place a week after The Pride Team & the Beanstalk*
1. More Time Trouble

**Hello, faithful viewers, fanfic lovers, and Pride Team fans! I'm back again with another Pride Team Adventure, and this one takes place a week after The Pride Team & the Beanstalk! Enjoy as some members of the team travel back in time to stop their enemies! Disclaimer time! I don't own Pokemon, Ice Age, the Lion King, CatDog, or the Angry Beavers! This is just for fun! Enjoy the time traveling story!**

* * *

After hearing the story of what happened up in the skies by Snorlax the Former Giant, Sneasel and Wynaut decided to let the former join their group of troublemakers.

It was a week after the Pride Team's journey in the clouds and now Sneasel, Wynaut, and Snorlax were searching the forest for something, or rather someone.

"You know, Snorlax? It's a lucky thing you met up with us. We share a common enemy." Sneasel said. He was still looking around for someone. "Remember what I said about that Pikachu and Riolu, big guy?"

"That those two are part of a good guy adventure team called the Pride Team. They even kicked you guys out of this place called the Pride Lands after this lion named Scar kicked the bucket, and now you guys want to make their lives difficult. Is that about right?" Snorlax answered.

"You really are a good listener, Snorlax." Wynaut happily. That made Snorlax a little bashful.

Sneasel got the two back on track. "Okay, enough of that. Just keep your eyes peeled for a Pokemon called Celebi."

"Celebi?" Snorlax asked. Wynaut knew what his partner was talking about. "Hey, Sneasel? Don't you remember the last time we made an encounter with Celebi? She ended up sending us and also Max and Riolu back in time to the Ice Age!"

Sneasel smirked and patted Wynaut's back. "Oh, my poor, blue friend, that was because we caught her by surprise by accident during our fight. My new plan involves catching her by surprise once again, but on purpose this time."

"What does this plan involve?" Snorlax asked. "Simple. All we have to do is surprise Celebi so she'll unknowingly send us back in time, 20,000 years into the past to be exact. We cause some trouble in the Ice Age, there's no way those Pride Chumps can ignore any trouble, even at a different time period." Sneasel's smirk got wider as he explained the plan. "That's when spring our trap! We'll enlist help of any dangerous creatures in the past. They help us get them out of the picture in the past, then they'll never be our problem in the future!" He gave off a wicked laugh after that explanation.

Wynaut smiled. "Now that's my pal! Coming up with a great plan like that!" Snorlax looked confused. "Still, how do we find this Celebi?" Sneasel stopped laughing after that. "Hmm. Good point. We don't even know where she is."

"Found her!" Wynaut pointed to his left. Sure enough, the three of them looked to see Celebi happily floating about. Sneasel chuckled softly and gave Wynaut a one-armed hug. "And that's MY pal!" Sneasel chuckled as they looked at Celebi.

"Okay..." Sneasel had them wait. Then, once Celebi had her back turned to them... "NOW!" They jumped at her and covered her eyes.

Celebi was surprised and flailing about, but the three troublemaking Pokemon kept their hold. Then she began to give off a glow. "Hey! She's glowing!" Snorlax noticed.

Sneasel smirked, "Good! That means it's working! Hang on, boys! We're going on a little trip!" Celebi then glowed brighter just as Max was coming through the forest.

"Huh? What the-!?" Max had to shield his eyes as the light shined brighter. When the light began to dim, Max uncovered his eyes.

Celebi was able to open her eyes as well. Right now, in the forest was only Max and Celebi.

Thinking that something was off, Max then approached Celebi to ask her some questions. "Celebi, what happened?" She then turned to the human turned Pikachu. "Max! The strangest thing happened! I was just floating around here, then the next thing I knew a pair of hands with sharp claws and two other pairs of hands covered my eyes! I panicked and didn't know what I was doing, I think I might've taken the surprise attackers back in time with my powers."

"Pair of hands with sharp claws?" Max knew right away who that was. "Sounds like Sneasel and Wynaut are up to no good again." He sounded annoyed as he said that.

"Not them again!" Celebi looked annoyed herself.

"We'd better meet up with the others and discuss this and figure out when those two troublemakers went." Max pulled out his badge. The badges held by the Pride Team members also doubles as communicators so the team members can stay in touch. Max pressed some buttons to call someone. "Riolu? It's Max!"

"Max? What's up?" Riolu asked on the other line. "We've got a situation. Sneasel and Wynaut are causing trouble again!" Max answered. Riolu groaned, "Not those two!"

"Yeah, I know it's annoying. Look, they surprised Celebi and now they went back in time again! Get the other team members together, me and Celebi will meet you at Pride Rock! We've gotta clean up their mess yet again!" Max said seriously. Riolu saluted, "Copy that, buddy! We'll meet you there!" They ended their call after that.

Max then turned to Celebi. "You mind coming with me back to Pride Rock?" Celebi nodded seriously, "Anything to make sure those two don't make a big mess in the timeline!"

After that, Max and Celebi turned and ran for Pride Rock.

* * *

Soon, Celebi was at Pride Rock, floating in front of the current members of the Pride Team, Max, Riolu, Rockruff, Light, Crimson, Simba, Nala, Zazu, Rafiki, Pansage, Pansear, Panpour, Timon, Pumbaa, Norbert, Daggett, and the newest members, Kate the Togetic and her brothers, CatDog.

Celebi was explaining what Sneasel and Wynaut did. The only ones that didn't groan in annoyance were CatDog and Kate. "I can't believe those two riff-raffs would surprise a Pokemon like Celebi just to end up in another time period!" Zazu groaned.

"Those two seem to be pretty persistent in causing trouble." Norbert said. "Yeah, even after that spooty Scar guy got taken out by Simba!" Daggett agreed.

"Those two are more trouble than those hyenas in the Elephant Graveyard." Crimson grumbled.

Cat and Dog looked at each other in confusion while Kate tilted her head. "Uh, I take it that these two called Sneasel and Wynaut caused you guys trouble before?" Cat asked.

Simba nodded, "They've been a problem ever since me, Nala, Max, and Riolu went to the Elephant Graveyard." "And that was back when Simba and I were just cubs." Nala added.

"That was years ago. And they still don't give up!" Riolu said. "I guess we should do something about those two, shouldn't we?" Pumbaa asked.

Max nodded, "We've gotta stop whatever plan Sneasel and Wynaut have and get them back to this time period."

Timon shrugged, pretty clueless about something. "One problem, we don't know what time period they've landed in!"

Rafiki stepped up. "Ah, but me and Celebi can find out where they've went!" He held out his staff to Celebi. "Just hold on to my staff with me, my dear." Celebi nodded before she held the staff with Rafiki.

Everyone else watched as the two of them glowed a little as they closed their eyes. "Wow! This is kinda amazing!" Dog said happily. "Does stuff like this usually happen to you and the rest of the team?" Kate asked Max. "Only in dire situations like this!" Max answered.

Soon, Rafiki's staff shot a beam at the ground close to Pride Rock. The members of the team looked down and saw that the beam made a portal to the past.

Rafiki and Celebi then joined them. "We've found out where they went!" Celebi happily told the Pride Team. Rafiki pointed his staff at the portal. "This time hole should take you to the time period those two should be located."

Dog drooled a little as he looked at the portal. "So white and swirly." Cat was able to pull him back. "Easy there, Dog. Don't make yourself dizzy."

Pansage looked at the portal. "So, all we have to do is jump into that portal and it will take us to the same time period as Sneasel and Wynaut?" Panpour smiled, "Once again, you've amazed me, Uncle Rafiki."

"Okay, then there's one more question to ask!" Pansear quickly turned to the others. "Which one of us is going back in time?"

"Riolu and I had a little experience going into the past before, so the two of us will go!" Max said. Riolu nodded in agreement, "That's right! We're a duo of travelling Pokemon!"

Simba suddenly stepped up. "I'll go with you two. It's been a while since the three of us did something together." Then he looked directly at Max and smiled, "Consider it as thanks for helping me take my home back." That made Max smile back.

Nala walked up to her husband. "Just be careful when you get there, Simba. We're counting on you." The two lions nuzzled each other.

"Hey! Maybe we should go, too!" Pumbaa happily suggested to Timon. "Pumbaa, are you crazy? I'm still recovering from our little journey in the sky!" Timon shook his head.

"Yeah. Maybe some of us should stay back. No sense in all of us going, right?" Cat agreed with Timon. Mainly because he didn't want to go either.

Kate then stood next to Max and Riolu. "Well, I'm going with you! This could be the perfect opportunity to see how well we can work together as a team!"

Cat groaned and smacked his forehead, "Kate's just as stubborn now as she was back home!" Dog was looking excited and panting heavily, because he was thinking about the portal. "High-ho-digety to adventures in the past!" Dog suddenly declared. He then dashed over to the end of Pride Rock, much to the others surprise.

Since they were attached to each other, literally, Cat was dragged along with Dog. He screamed and tried to get Dog to stop. Cat then unknowingly grabbed Timon and Pumbaa, dragging them along. Dog then jumped off the rock and down to the portal, taking Cat, Timon, and Pumbaa with them while the three of them screamed. The four of them disappeared into the portal with the screams of Cat, Timon, and Pumbaa still echoing.

The other members and Celebi blinked a couple of times. "I guess this means they're going too." Light said. Kate giggled sheepishly, "Sorry. Sometimes, my brother, Dog, can get a little too excited."

"We should probably hurry after them! Cannon Ball!" Riolu was next to dive into the portal. "Hey, CatDog! Wait for me!" Kate laughed as she dived into the portal as well.

Max and Simba turned to the other team members. "You guys stay here! Make sure nothing strange happens while we're gone!" Max said to them.

Daggett saluted, "Yes, Sir!" Max laughed a little before he played along a little bit. "At ease, Private Daggett!"

"Nala, you're in charge while we're gone. Keep everyone safe." Simba told his wife. Nala nodded with a wink.

Max and Simba turned to each other and nodded. "Let's go!" Max said. The Pikachu and the lion them jumped into the portal. After that, the portal just disappeared.

Pansear then decided to ask something. "Say, Uncle Rafiki? Where is that portal taking them anyway?" He was asking his uncle because Rafiki and Celebi were the ones that saw when Sneasel and Wynaut ended up.

Rafiki looked ahead to the setting sun. "They're travelling back to the time of the Ice Age...during the time of global warming!"

 **The Pride Team's Meltdown!**

* * *

 **Ta-da! The start of a new adventure for the Pride Team! The next chapter of this adventure will take place 20,000 years ago, so look forward to that! See ya later!**


	2. In the Past Again

**Here we are, readers! Six Pride Team members and three members of Sneasel's group, called the Outsiders, begin their journey in the past! Enjoy as they start their adventure in the Ice Age era in the time of global warming!**

* * *

The icy walls of the Ice Age 20,000 years ago were not the best things to climb on, especially with the weather slightly warmer than before. The ice was starting to crack, and also a discomforting sound coming from within the walls. This is a sign of the ice beginning to melt.

Still, one was brave, or stupid, enough to climb these icy walls. That one was the saber-toothed squirrel, Scrat. He was once again on a quest for acorns.

Searching for his prized nut, he was awkwardly climbing up to where he buried it. Scrat was climbing upside down, using his teeth, trying to figure out his next move. However, as he got to the edge, Scrat lost his grip. His tongue got stuck on the ice and he was left dangling.

Scrat tried to pull himself up twice, but failed. He then grabbed his tongue and awkwardly swung a little to the edge. After that, he pulled hard to free his tongue. He freed it and almost fell off, but he was able to hold on. As he clung to the edge, he perked up when his eyes set on what he was looking for. His prized acorn was firmly stuck on the wall above him.

Scrat scurried up to it and moaned happily, then he tried to pull it off. After some hard struggling, Scrat was able to free his acorn from the icy wall. He hugged it happily.

Just then, he heard some sort of noise. Then water began to spew from the hole the acorn was in. "Uh oh!" Scrat didn't want something bad to happen, so he plugged up the hole with his finger. Then another hole spewed water above his head. Holding his prize with his mouth, Scrat used his other hand to plug that hole up too. But, then another one started up. He used his foot to plug it up, he caught his acorn with the other foot after he nearly lost his grip on it. Sadly, another water spout appeared. Thinking fast, Scrat tossed his acorn on top of his head before he plugged up the spout with his foot.

Another spout came and squirted Scrat's face with water. With his hands and feet full, he had no other choice but to plug the fifth one with his mouth. But by doing that, he began to accidentally swallow water and he began to blow up like a fuzzy water balloon. This was making him lose his grip on the other four spouts. Finally, it was too much and he was blown away. He lost his acorn as he blew away.

Scrat was now moving around and deflating himself, spraying water everywhere he went. He finally ran out, but there was just one little thing he noticed a little too late...he was in midair.

"WAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Screaming, Scrat fell right to the bottom below for another painful landing. He smashed through two plates of ice, knocked his jaw on a thin layer of ice, before crashing into an icy slide face first.

Scrat stood up, moaning before shaking the dizzy spell away. "Wooooooo-Hoooooo!" Scrat then heard something coming his way quickly. He turned to what it was, only to crash into a child Mouthdigger enjoying herself on the ice slide as they got closer to the end. Scrat screamed, but the two of them came to an end of the ice tunnel. Now they were falling into a water pool below them.

* * *

The water pool was a part of a water park that was made of the melting ice. The Ice Age animals were having so much fun at the water park, they didn't even see a mysterious portal open above the ground next to the pool.

The one also not noticing the portal was a male, short-stumpy trunk mammal who was feeling hot and was fanning himself with his front foot. "Oy! This Global Warming is killing me!" He complained.

Next to him, his short-stumpy trunk wife rolled her eyes at him. "This was too hot, the Ice Age was too cold." She didn't even see someone fall out of the portal. What came out of the portal were CatDog, Timon, and Pumbaa. Once they landed on the ground, Cat accidentally sent Timon flying to the short-stumpy trunk couple with the meerkat screaming as he flew over. "What would it take to make you happy?" the short-stumpy trunk wife asked her husband just before Timon landed hard next to her. That was enough to crack the ice enough to give out on the short-stumpy trunk lady and Timon were on. The two of them yelped before they landed in the water with a splash.

Rather than being concerned for his wife, the short-stumpy trunk male just smiled and began to relax and enjoy the peace and quiet. "This I like."

Dog got up and happily stretched his arms. "Oh boy! That was pretty fun!" Cat shot up and gave the dog he was attached to a glare. "You call that fun? That could've killed us!" Pumbaa shook his head a little. "I don't know about that. It didn't seem THAT bad." Just after he said that, Riolu, Kate, Max, and Simba came out of the portal and landed next to CatDog and Pumbaa.

"So, did we make it?" Kate asked while looking around. The portal above them closed up. Max looked at the area around them. They were in a valley with a massive ice wall surrounding everything. "Yep, looks like we've made it back 20,000 years in the past. Welcome to the Ice Age, guys!" Max told his friends. "This must be the time period that Sneasel and Wynaut landed in, no doubt." Simba mentioned.

Riolu looked around, then he noticed that someone was missing from their group. "Hey, wait a minute. Where's Timon?" Just then, said meerkat walked over to them, soaking wet and annoyed. "Not how I wanted to begin this unexpected time travel adventure. Landing on hard ice and then taking a swim while a bunch of mooks enjoy their little water park!" Timon grumbled, then he shook the water from his fur.

Hearing their friend talk about a water park confused them a bit. "Water park? What water park?" Simba asked. "That water park. Look." Timon pointed to what was in front of them. The eight of them looked in awe at the water park made out of the melting ice of the wall behind the animals.

"Wow! The ice has melted a bit and these animals are turning it into their own water park!" Pumbaa said in awe. "Strange, the ice wasn't melting even a little the last time we've landed in this time period. So, why is it melting now?" Riolu asked Max. "Maybe we've landed at the point when the planet began Global Warming." Max guessed.

They saw that one poor freaky animal guy got stuck on one of the water slides, but he then got launched off after a bit of a traffic jam behind him. He was sliding on the ice and crashed into a flock of ice age penguins like they were bowling pins.

Dog looked around. "Are you sure two troublemakers are here causing trouble?" He asked Max, Riolu, Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa. Cat looked around and he had to agree with his other half. "Dog might be on to something. Things look pretty peaceful to me."

Timon and Pumbaa suddenly looked behind them, and they screamed when something came their way. The screaming made the others turn around while the meerkat and warthog hid behind Simba. The lion, himself, growled and prepared himself to defend his friends.

Coming to them were two different animals, a mammoth and a saber-tooth tiger. The mammoth recognized two members of the group. "Hey, Max! Riolu!" the mammoth suddenly greeted the two.

Max and Riolu knew the two right away, and they were happy to see them. "It's Manny and Diego!" Max exclaimed happily. "Hey, guys!" Riolu greeted them.

"It's good to see you two again. It's been a while since we last saw you." Diego said with a smirk.

Simba, Timon, Pumbaa, Kate, and CatDog were the only ones confused by this. "What's going on here?" Timon asked. He and Pumbaa moved out of their safe spot from behind Simba.

Kate walked over to Max and Riolu. "Max, do you and Riolu know those two?" Kate asked the Pikachu. Manny noticed those with his two smaller friends as well. "Hey, are those members of your herd?" Manny asked. Max and Riolu smiled at each other. "Looks like it's time for introductions." Riolu said.

Max waved his hand to the members of the Pride Team. "Manny, Diego, I'd like you to meet some more members of the Pride Team. The Pokemon next me is Kate the Togetic. Behind us are Simba, Timon, Pumbaa, and CatDog." The members gave their greetings when their names were called.

Diego raised an eyebrow when he looked at CatDog. "Am I seeing things, or is that a living two headed creature?" Diego asked Manny. The mammoth was surprised by this as well. "I'm seeing it, but I'm having a hard time believing it." Manny said.

Max then turned to the teammates that came with him and Riolu to the past. "Guys, meet Manny and Diego."

"Wow! So those two helped you and Riolu return a baby to his family?" Pumbaa asked. Riolu nodded, "Yep, these are the guys that helped us return Pinky!"

Simba smiled and walked over. "Well, any friend of Max and Riolu is a friend of mine." He and Diego shook paws while Cat and Manny shook hands with the mammoth using his trunk.

Max suddenly realized that someone was missing from Manny's small group. "Uh, Manny? Where's Sid?" He asked the mammoth.

The only answer the Pride Team got were a couple of groans from Manny and Diego.

* * *

Not too far from Manny, Diego, and the Pride Team was a smaller playground made of melted ice. That is where the small ice age children were playing. A young horned beaver was making a small dam, but two other children chasing each other ran by and wrecked her small dam. Seeing her work ruined, she slumped and began to cry.

That was when a sloth, Sid, came by, whistling through a seashell. He looked like quite a muscular sloth. "No running, James. Camp rules." He called. He then turned his head to a female sloth lounging on another piece of ice. She was admiring the way Sid looked.

The two children chasing each other ran by. Then the boy Aardvark, James, gave Sid a challenging glare. "Make me, Sloth!" He ran to play with his friend again.

"Make me, sir." Sid corrected. He walked away from the ice he was standing behind, revealing that he still looked like a fuzzy pear with a long neck. "It's all about respect." He told the female sloth.

"Ew." Said female cringed before walking away.

Sid didn't really have much control of what was going on. "Sammy, you just ate! Wait an hour." He called after he noticed James' friend, Sammy, a short-stumpy trunk female, splash in a small pond. Sid then tried to get the other kids to behave. "Hector, no, no, no, you can't pee-pee there...Uh, o-okay. There's fine. Ashley, stop picking your-oh!"

He suddenly found himself upside down with a vine tied to his ankle. No doubt a trap made by the kids who gathered around the sloth. The horned beaver, Ashley, was holding a stick. "Pinata! Yay!" the kids cheered.

Sid saw that he was about to be treated like a pinata, so he tried to stop them. "Stop! You're supposed to wear blindfolds." He told them the rules of a pinata game.

"Okay." Ashley shrugged. She only covered one eye and smacked Sid with the stick.

James then snatched the stick from Ashley. "Hey! It's my turn to hit the sloth!" Ashley and James argued about it, tugging on the stick, and also hitting Sid on the head.

Sid was screaming and swinging in circles. Ashley won and hit Sid so hard, he went flying loose from the vine and landed on the ground face first. The children cheered and gathered around Sid, but then they were disappointed when they got to him. "Hey, you didn't have any candy in you." Ashley whined, poking Sid with the stick.

"Let's bury him!" a kid mouthdigger suggested. The other kids cheered at the suggestion. After digging a hole big enough to fit Sid in, they placed him in and Ashley began to shove him in a little more by bouncing on his head. The kids stopped when they saw that Max, Riolu, Simba, Timon, Pumbaa, Kate, CatDog, Manny, and Diego approached them.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Now who said you kids could torture the sloth?" Max gently scolded the kids. "Max, don't squash their creativity." Diego humorously scolded the Pikachu.

"Hey Manny, Diego, Max, Riolu!" Sid managed to pop his head free to greet his four friends. "My bad mammal-jammals. Wanna give the sloth a hand?"

Manny wrapped his trunk around Sid's neck to pull him free. As he did, Timon turned to Riolu. "That's the third friend you and Max made the last time you were here?" the meerkat whispered to Riolu. "Yep, that's Sid the Sloth." Riolu whispered.

Manny gently set Sid down in front of Max and his gang. "Max, Riolu, it's so good to see you two again! And I'm glad to meet some of your friends!" He then whispered something to the Pikachu leader. "I'm really amazed by that guy with two heads." Sid pointed to CatDog as he whispered.

Max nodded a little. "Sid, this is Kate the Togetic, Simba, Timon, Pumbaa, and the one you're amazed by are called CatDog."

Sid waved to them before he began to say something. "Look, I opened my camp."

"You opened a camp?" Timon asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Campo Del Sid." Sid said in a different language.

"Campo Del Sid? What does that mean?" Dog asked in confusion.

"It means 'Camp of Sid'." Sid answered Dog's question proudly.

"Congratulations. You're now an idiot in two languages." Diego said sarcastically.

Sid was quick to shush him. "Not in front of the K-I-D-Z. These little guys love me. Right, Billy?" He asked a young turtle-like child.

"Don't make me eat you." Billy threatened sarcastically. That made the other kids laugh. Max was laughing a little at that himself, he quickly stopped when he caught Kate glaring at him a little in disapproval.

Sid just brushed it off. "Ah, they kid. That's why they're called kids."

Simba smiled and shook his head a little. "I remember when I used to be like that."

"Sid, I told you, you're not qualified to run a camp." Manny rolled his eyes a little.

"Oh, since when did qualifications have anything to do with childcare? Besides, these kids look up to me. I'm a role model to them." As Sid spoke, James and Ashley were tying his legs together. Then they knocked him on his back. The children laughed again and Sid's friends were hovering over him.

"I can see that." Cat smirked.

Finally annoyed, Sid rolled over and snapped at his friends. "You guys never think I can do anything, but I'm an equal member of this herd." He managed jumped back to his feet, despite that they're still tied together. "I made this herd, so you need to start treating me with some respect." He was mainly telling this to Manny, Diego, Max, and Riolu. "And even though we just met, the same goes for you." He added to Simba, Timon, Pumbaa, Kate, and CatDog. He then hopped away from them since his legs were still tied up.

"Sid?" Pumbaa asked. He sounded concerned for Sid.

"Come on, Sid. We didn't mean it." Max called to the sloth.

"Sid! We were just kidding." Diego added.

"Hey." The ten of them turned to the children when Ashley threw in a suggestion for her friends. "Let's play pin-the-tail-on-the-mammoth."

"Yeah!" the kids agreed. Ashley even hoisted the stick she was holding above her head. The ten of them realized they were now stuck babysitting the children in front of them.

Max and the others first did one thing... call for help. "SID!" They yelled out in panic.

* * *

"I can do stuff!" Sid grumbled to himself. He was struggling to get the vine off him. He was also complaining about the lack of support from his friends as well as the friends of his two smaller friends. "Won't give me their stupid respect."

After some struggling with the vine, getting it on his legs, face, or tail, Sid finally got it off of him. "I'll show 'em." He declared.

Sid then walked off to find a way to earn him some respect.

* * *

 **Poor Sid, all he wanted was some support from his friends. Other than that, this is quite an unexpected way for the Pride Team to start their Ice Age adventure. But, where could Sneasel, Wynaut, and Snorlax be? Are they really in this time period? Stay tuned for the next chapter to find out! Until then, see ya later!**


	3. Stories & Doomsday

**Here you go, another Meltdown chapter fresh from the oven! Things start to get pretty wet here! See for yourselves! Enjoy!**

* * *

It wasn't easy for Max and his friends to watch the kids without Sid helping. However, Manny saved them by telling the kids a little story. The story was enough to get the kids to settle down. Max and the others either sat or stood next to Manny as he told the kids his little story.

"...And so, in the end, the little burro reached his mommy. And they lived happily ever after." Manny happily finished the story. The children cheered and Max and the others were impressed.

"Wow. That was pretty good, Manny. You're like a natural." Simba commented.

Then Ashley raised her hand. "Question. Why did the burro go home? Why didn't he stay with the rabbits?"

Clearly, Manny didn't expect a question like that. "Because...because he wanted to be with his family."

A little girl bird then hopped over and landed on his left tusk. "I think he should go with a girl burro. That's a better love story."

"Okay, well, when you tell your burro story, that's what he'll do." Manny gently picked the bird up and place her on Billy's shell.

A young deer, holding a smirk, stepped up to say something. "Burro is a demeaning name. Technically, it's called a wild ass."

That made Max and some of his friends flinch a little bit. Feeling annoyed, Manny then sarcastically retold the ending, "Fine. The wild ass boy came home to his wild ass mother."

That made the children laugh hysterically. Max sighed, "Now do you get why he called it a burro?" Diego and Riolu chuckled a little, but they stopped when Manny, Max, and Simba glared at them a little.

A young rhino then asked his own question. "Could the burro have a grazing problem? That would make him more relatable."

Soon the kids began laugh and talk about how the story should've ended.

"Boring."

"It's not believable."

"Do burros eat their young?"

"It's not a very satisfying ending."

"Sometimes, I throw up."

The last thing said made Cat shiver a little. "I know the feeling sometimes." He muttered to himself.

Max then tried to get their attention again. "Come on, kids. That's how most stories go. They lived happily ever after. You can't get more satisfying than that."

Manny agreed, "He's right. One big, happy family. That's the way it's supposed to be."

"Then where's your big happy family?" The girl bird innocently asked the mammoth.

Not expecting that question, Manny remained silent, and his expression got a little sadder. Max noticed the expression on his friend's face and he felt sorry right away. He knew all too well that losing loved ones hurts on the inside, but it's even worse when they don't come back like how Riolu came back to him after a while after defeating Dark Matter.

Seeing his friends sad, Cat tried to think of something to help. Finally, something came to him when he set his eyes on Simba and Diego. "Uh...then a hungry lion and a hungry tiger came and ate the annoying little kids!" He waved his arm to Simba and Diego. Quickly getting Cat's message, both the lion and tiger roared and leaped in front of the children. The kids screamed and ran away to their parents, one of them literally cried out for her mother.

Now that they were alone, Max and the others turned to Manny who was walking away.

"You okay, buddy?" Diego asked.

"Sure. Why not?" Manny replied.

"Well, uh, I just thought-" Cat was cut off by Manny. "Story time's over. The end." the mammoth snapped.

Suddenly, two short-stumpy trunk kids ran by looking scared about something. "Get out of the way!" One of them cried out. "Run for your lives!" The other one cried out.

Startled, Manny, Diego, and the Pride Team stopped the kids to find out what's going on. "Whoa! Slow down!" Max yelped.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Manny yelped.

"Whoa! Where are you two going in such a hurry?" Simba asked the two kids.

"The world's coming to an end!" One of the boys exclaimed. This confused the others.

"What are you talking about?" Riolu asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Fast Tony, he says the world's gonna flood!" The other kid answered. The ten of them looked at each other in confusion. Then Max turned back to the boys. "Where did you two last see this Fast Tony guy? I'd like to have a word with him."

* * *

Fast Tony, a purple Holmesina with brown eyes and peach skin, wasn't too far from the Pride Team, Manny, and Diego. He was standing on some ice blocks on a made up ice beach behind a giant eviscerator, trying to get the attention of the crowd walking by.

"Folks! I hold in my hand a device so powerful, it can actually pull air right out of the sky." Fast Tony held a reed as he explained to the crowd. "Gather 'round, gather 'round."

Fast Tony came up to a female Aardvark. "Pardon me, do you have gills, ma'am?" He asked.

"Uh uh." She shook her head.

"So you can't breath underwater?" He asked her.

"Uh uh." She shook her head again.

"Aha! My assistant here will demonstrate." Fast Tony was standing next to a turtle, Stu, who was dumb enough to have a reed in his nose.

"Hey, I can smell the ocean." Stu said. Fast Tony was annoyed by this.

"Oh! What are you doing? I can't sell that now. You suck air through your mouth, you moron." Fast Tony placed the reed in Stu's mouth before he shoved his assistant's head in the water.

To get the crowd to listen, Fast Tony continued as if nothing embarrassing happened. "Through its special design and sturdy construction, you'll have plenty of air for eons to come!" The rest of the reed ended up in the water, making Stu pop his head up quickly for fresh air.

"...Of course, results may vary." Fast Tony admitted. Then a sturdy piece of grass wrapped around his right wrist and quickly pulled him away. "Hey!"

Turns out, Max used Grass Knot to pull Fast Tony closer to glare at him. "You mind telling me why you're scaring everybody with this doomsday nonsense?" He asked the Holmesina.

Fast Tony laughed a little to the crowd. He then whispered to the Pikachu, "I'm trying to make a living here, Sparky." He then curled up into a ball to free himself, bounced to another ice block before he uncurled himself. "It's all part of my 'At you' weather forecast. The five-day outlook calls for intense flooding followed by _the end of the world_!"

The animals gasped in horror at that.

"And a slight chance of patchy sunshine later in the week." Fast Tony concluded.

Manny stood next to Max. "Come on. Don't listen to him. Fast Tony would sell his own mother for a grape." the mammoth told the crowd.

Fast Tony quietly went up to him. "Are you making an offer?" He then realized that the crowd was watching, so he went with some faux honesty. "I mean, no, I would not."

"Haven't you heard? The ice is melting." A stumpy-trunk animal told Max and Manny.

Max just shrugged, "Come on. There are plenty of Ice-Type Pokemon in the world, they can always re-freeze the ice if they want to."

Manny nodded in agreement before he began to make his own point. "You see this ground? It's covered in ice. A thousand years ago, it was covered in ice. A thousand years from now, it will still be ice."

A male Aardvark stepped up with a smug smile to say something to Manny. "Hey, buddy, not to cast aspersions on your survival instincts or nothing, but haven't mammoths pretty much gone extinct?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Max asked in confusion.

"I'm talking about him being the last of his kind." the aardvark answered while pointing at Manny.

Manny tried to change the subject to something else. "Uh...your breath smells like ants."

The aardvark smelled his breath and cringed in disgust, but he quickly got over that. "Be that as it may, when's the last time you saw another mammoth?"

The last time Manny saw any other mammoth...was when he saw his wife and son die before he met Sid, Diego, Max, and Riolu.

Simba tried to assure the mammoth, "Come on, Manny. Don't listen to what he's saying."

Manny quickly shook his head. "Mammoths can't go extinct. They're the biggest things on Earth."

"What about the dinosaurs and the Prehistoric Pokemon?" a female bird asked curiously.

"Both the dinosaurs and the Prehistoric Pokemon got cocky and made enemies out of each other." Riolu quickly answered for Manny.

Then, something caught a freaky animal guy's attention. "Look! Some idiot's going down the Eviscerator!" The animals gasped and looked up at the Eviscerator.

"Oh, please tell me that's not our idiot." Manny pleaded in worry and dismay.

But, when the team looked up, they were shocked to see Sid on top of the Eviscerator, getting ready to jump.

"Ok, I'm gonna jump on the count of three!" Sid called, getting ready to jump. "One...two..."

"Sid! Don't move a muscle! We're coming up!" Kate called to the sloth. The other animals began to encourage the sloth to jump. "Jump! Jump!" the crowd chanted.

"Jump! Jump! Jump!" Even Riolu, Timon, and Diego joined in before their friends glared at them. "What?" Timon shrugged. "Sorry." Riolu and Diego said at the same time.

* * *

Sid was still counting down on top of the Eviscerator. "Two and three one-thousandths, two and four one-thousandths..."

"Sid!" Sid turned to see his friends made it to the top as well. "What in the world do you think you're doing!? Get down from there!" Max yelled urgently.

Sid was stubborn and refused. "No way! I'm gonna be the first to jump off the Eviscerator, and then you guys are gonna have to start showing me some respect!"

"You jump off this, the only respect you're gonna get is respect for the dead." Manny pointed out in irritation.

"Oh, Manny. I don't think he'd really go through with this." Pumbaa assured. However, Sid turned and began to get ready to jump. "Of course, you've been wrong before, big guy." Timon muttered.

Manny, Max, and Riolu rushed over to Sid. "Geranimo-oh!" Sid was saved when Max and Riolu grabbed his arms while held on to the two Pokemon with his trunk.

Just as Manny tossed them behind him, the four of them began to slide on the ice. They screamed as they slid to the others who panicked.

"Hey, watch it!" Diego called out. Kate flew up a little while Simba, Timon, Pumbaa, and CatDog moved out of the way. Diego was pushed out into the open ice and slipped and fell on his stomach.

Kate lowered herself to join the others. "Are you guys okay?" She asked Manny, Max, Riolu, and Sid.

Riolu looked kinda delusional from the impact. "Oh. Mommy, I don't want talk to the monster in my closet anymore!"

Max was just as delusional as his best pal/partner. "I'll talk to the monster. Which way did the monster go?"

Cat looked at them in annoyance. "And they've been on crazy adventures before?"

Sid was under Manny and his claw was the only thing visible at the moment. "...I can't breath!" Simba helped Manny stand up while Kate and Pumbaa helped Sid out. "I think I just coughed up my spleen!" Sid told them.

Cat and Timon slapped Max and Riolu back to their senses. "Come on, you two! Pull it together!" Cat snapped.

Diego got back on his feet, but then the ice began to crack underneath him. He froze a bit when he felt something wet under his feet. He took off running to his friends with the ice breaking behind him. He leaped when he nearly fell into the water. He clung to the side of Manny's face, panting heavily with relief.

Feeling the pain from his friends claws, Manny used his trunk to tap Diego on the shoulder. "Uh, Diego? Retract the claws please."

"Oh, right. Sorry." Diego apologized as he gently got off his friend.

Max looked over at where Diego landed while Sid walked over to the tiger. "You know, if I didn't know you better, Diego, I'd think you were afraid of the water." He teased him and chuckled a little. He stopped however when Diego grabbed his neck and growled. "Okay, okay. Good thing I know you better."

"Guys." Max called to all of his friends with him. By the sound of his voice, it didn't sound good. Max and Manny looked ahead of them with horrified expressions on their faces. "Fast Tony was right all along. Everything is melting." Max said to them.

Everyone looked in shock. In front of them was ice melting into a bunch of water. What's worse is that it would only be a matter of time before the ice wall they were currently standing would melt as well! That just means that a flood was indeed coming soon!

* * *

 **Dun, Dun, Duuunn! Not only does the Pride Team need to find the troublemakers, they also need to help save their friends from an upcoming flood! See you in the next chapter!**


	4. On the Road Again

**Now that the Pride Team knows that a flood's coming, they need to get moving fast! Finding Sneasel, Wynaut, and Snorlax are gonna have to be put on hold. What matters is escaping this upcoming flood! Enjoy!**

* * *

Max and the other ten kept looking ahead at the many miles of water in front of them.

"Oh man. This is not good." Riolu muttered.

"It's all gonna flood in a matter of time." Simba said in horror.

Manny looked serious and began to turn around. "Come on, we gotta warn them." He and the others turned around to warn everyone down below.

"Hmm...Maybe we can rapidly evolve into water creatures." Sid thought out loud.

"That sounds like a genius idea, Sid." Timon replied sarcastically. He got on Pumbaa's back and the two of them followed the others.

"Call me Squid." Sid said proudly. He began to follow the others as they walked over an ice bridge over a streaming river which was directly above the eviscerator.

Sid grabbed a piece close to him and it yanked off right away. "Sheesh, this whole thing's a piece of junk. I can't believe I live here." He hopped on the bridge twice. However, it caused a cracking noise and a rumble that had Max, Riolu, Manny, Diego, Simba, Timon, Pumbaa, Kate, and CatDog stop and gasp a little. Then they turned to glare at Sid a little. "What?" Sid shrugged cluelessly. But then he felt that something was off too.

Then, the ice broke right underneath them because of their weight and they fell screaming. Even Kate fell when Cat clung to her tightly. Manny was taking most of the unexpected water ride down the eviscerator on his back while his friends clung on to him for dear life.

* * *

Back on the ground, the crowd began to leave, and that meant Fast Tony was losing customers. He had to do something to make them stay. "Forget reeds. I present you with this revolutionary gizmo we call bark. It's so buoyant, it actually floats." He held up some bark, but the crowd was still leaving.

"I'll show you something that floats." The small-trunk animal mocked. He then laughed along with his wife.

"All right, it's your funeral." Fast Tony replied. He was becoming more and more aware of the screaming from behind him. The screaming was coming from the Pride Team, Manny, Sid, and Diego who made it to them bottom. Now the eleven of them were skidding over in Fast Tony's direction. Fast Tony saw them coming and curled into a ball to avoid being hit. He was lucky when they stopped right in front of him.

Fast Tony uncurled himself a little to see Max hanging upside down on Manny's left tusk. "Uh...Hi?" Max said awkwardly.

Ignoring the Pikachu, Fast Tony uncurled himself some more to get everyone's attention again. "You see? This is exactly what I'm talking about. Giant balls of furry lava, the size of mammoths, raining from the sky!"

"Eh, go suck air through a reed." a male mouthdigger mocked. That got the crowd laughing again.

"Everyone, please! You've gotta listen to Fast Tony! He's right about the flood!" Max yelled urgently. That got everyone's attention, including Fast Tony. He only made that flood stuff up, and now a Pikachu was saying that he's right?

"I am?" Fast Tony asked himself. But then he corrected himself proudly, "I mean, er, yes, I am."

"Wait a minute, Volt Boy. Your mammoth friend there was the one who said there wasn't going to be a flood. Why should we listen to you?" a male deer asked suspiciously.

"Because me and my friends saw what's up there, and it's not a good sign." Max replied. Simba stood next to his Pikachu friend. "Listen to what he's saying! The dam's gonna break and it's only a matter of time before the entire valley floods!"

The crowd of animals burst into laughter, not believing what Max and Simba were saying.

"Flood's real alright." A dark voice got them to stop laughing. Everyone turned to see a vulture on a tree branch looking at them. "And it's coming fast. Look around. You're in a bowl. Bowl's gonna fill up. Ain't no way out."

Everyone looked around and they saw that he was right. The ice around the valley made it seem like they were in a giant ice bowl. They began to panic at this news. "What are we gonna do?" a young female deer asked in fear while everyone else discussed the situation.

"Unless," the vulture got everyone's attention once again. "you can make it to the end of the valley."

"The end of the valley? Uh, what's there, Mr. Scary Vulture Guy?" Dog asked, shaking in a little fear.

"There's a boat, my dear boy. It can save you." the vulture smirked casually.

The male stumpy-trunk scoffed, "I don't see anything." The others discussed about this too, until the vulture spoke up again.

This time, he was frowning. "But...y'all better hurry. Ground's melting, walls tumbling, rocks crumbling. Survive that and you'll be racing the water, cos' in three days time, it's gonna hit the geyser fields." He smirked again when they leaned in close. "Boom!"

The animals screamed and a horned beaver even fainted dramatically.

"There is some good news though." the vulture got them to smile hopefully. But that quickly changed with what he said next. "The more of you die, the better I eat." The animals gasped at that. The vulture just shrugged his wings. "I didn't say it was good news for you." He then flew away from the Pride Team, the herd, and the other animals.

A bit of a pause happened before someone spoke up. "Pfft, that guy wouldn't even last ten seconds against my ol' pops." Riolu told his friends.

Then everyone heard a loud rumble and then looked up. To their fear, large chunks of ice crumbled off the wall and began to fall towards the water and everyone. Most of them screamed and ran away. One of them had to use the slide to escape. The slide itself began to tip over thanks to the landing chunk.

The slide would've crushed little Ashley, who was making a small dam again, if her father hadn't ran by and scooped her to safety just before the slide landed on the ground. That was a close call for them as they looked up at the ice wall that was slowly melting away. "Dam." The horned beaver dad remarked in shock.

"Okay, you all heard what that mysterious vulture said, let's move out." Simba ordered everyone. They knew there was no point in arguing about it, so they began to move out to the end of the valley.

Timon gulped a little. "Uh, do you guys really think there's a boat?" Both he and Pumbaa were quivering quite a bit.

"To be honest, Timon, I have no clue. But, it's not like we have much of a choice. This place is gonna be a mile underwater in three days." Max answered honestly. Manny agreed with the Pikachu, "Max is right. If there's any hope, it's that way." He nodded to the end of the valley. The Pride Team and the herd began to move out as well.

Dog then suddenly realized something. "Wait! Kate, what about the troublemakers Max was talking about?" He asked the Togetic floating next to him. "I don't know, Dog. But we can worry about them some other time. Right now, we need to make sure everyone is safe from the flood." Kate replied.

As he began to follow his friends, Max stopped and his ears twitched when he heard something behind him. When he looked behind him, he saw a big block of ice floating in the water. Feeling that something wasn't right, Max narrowed his eyes. It sounded like the ice was creaking a bit, he could also hear the sound of growling. Does anyone else hear quiet snickering.

Max couldn't really determine what it was because Diego, who noticed that the Pikachu had fallen behind, called out to him. "Max, let's go!"

Max knew that the tiger was right. So, despite the uneasy feeling, and taking just one more glance at the ice, he walked away from the ice and followed his friends.

However, if he had stayed a little longer, Max would've noticed something inside the ice. Two dangerous fishes, a purple one named Cretaceous and a big green one named Maelstrom.

Then something emerged from the water next to the ice. It was the troublemakers themselves, Sneasel and Wynaut, along with their new teammate, Snorlax the Former Giant. They were now getting the water out of their mouths.

Wynaut coughed, "Why couldn't we have landed in a nice soft pile of snow when we came to this time period?"

Snorlax shook his head a little. "Never mind that. I overheard them saying something about a flood."

"Oh really?" Sneasel smirked when he spotted Max trying to catch up to his friends. "I knew it! Once we left our time, those Pride Pests came chasing after us! Now, with this flood coming, we can make sure that they drown right here and they'll never be a problem to us 20,000 years from now!"

Snorlax laughed a bit. "Sounds like an interesting idea to get revenge on those guys for what they did to me back up in the skies!"

Wynaut screamed and swam behind Sneasel in fear all of a sudden. "Wynaut, what is it?" Sneasel asked. Wynaut pointed to the ice next to them. "Those are some scary looking fish in the ice!"

"Fish?" Snorlax asked. They looked at the fishes in the ice. Sneasel even noticed that Cretaceous' eye turned to them, showing that he and Maelstrom were still alive. With a new idea beginning to form in his brain, Sneasel held up his claws with a smirk on his face. "Well, maybe we should let them out of there for some fresh water."

* * *

Meanwhile, everyone in the valley began to evacuate in order to avoid the flood. The many vultures and Mandibuzz's were hoping for some sort of casualty so they can get a bite to eat.

"We got an overturned glyptodont in the far right lane. Traffic backed up as far as the eye can see." a male vulture said, sounding like a traffic reporter.

"Ooh, would you look at that?" a Mandibuzz with two male vultures noticed something. The vulture from earlier noticed it as well. "It looks like there might be a fatality."

The other vulture licked his beak and Mandibuzz gave a dark smirk. "I call the dark meat!" the first vulture called out playfully. The three of them rushed off to the fatality.

Everyone was leaving to the boat. A mother bird gathered her babies in her nest, then she rushed off, carrying the nest of chicks. Four young mole-hogs were trying to get their stubborn grandpa to leave the hole. Even a family of dung beetles were rushing off with the father rolling a ball of dung with them.

Manny and Max were directing traffic with the Pikachu on the mammoth's left tusk. "Come on, everyone! You're doing great! Keep your children close!" Max instructed.

Sid then rushed over to the two of them with some berries he was eating. "Hey, Manny. I just heard you're goin' extinct." Sid finished off the berries he was eating, leaving some of the juice on his face and paws. He began to lick his claws.

CatDog joined the others. "Hey, if you ever master hygiene, you might want to work on sensitivity next." Cat suggested to Sid in annoyance.

"I'm not going extinct!" Manny snapped. He was getting tired of hearing about the possibility of mammoths becoming extinct.

The same aardvark that started the extinction rumor came to Manny with his children. "Kids, look. The last mammoth." The children were in awe when they looked at Manny. "Well, you probably won't see another one of those again." The aardvark family began to walk away from Max, Manny, and Sid.

"See?" Sid asked. That made Max and Manny glare at him.

The aardvark dad was counting the number of kids currently with him, but he noticed that one was missing. "Where is James?"

* * *

Where was James, he asked? Why James was back where everyone else was standing earlier. He was laughing and making bubbles in the water with his mini-trunk. He didn't even notice that the ice that had Cretaceous and Maelstrom inside cracked in half and the two fishes, as well as the troublemakers, were nowhere to be seen.

James was having too much fun, he didn't even notice that something was coming up to him from the water. It came up to him with a splash so big, it made James scream and run off.

It was only Fast Tony's dumb assistant, Stu. He had the reed in his nose again and laughed a little. He went back underwater and swam without a care while breathing out the reed through his nose. He suddenly screamed as something pulled him deeper into the water.

Unaware of what was mysteriously happening in the water, Fast Tony was calling to his assistant. "Stu? Come on, Stu. Let's blow this ice cube stand." He screamed when something landed from the water in front of him. It was the turtle shell of Stu. "Stu!" Fast Tony looked inside, but found the shell to be completely empty.

He kept looking at the shell, then he looked at the departing crowd as another idea came to him. "Folks, be the first in the valley to have your very own mobile home!" He ran off with the shell over his head in an attempt to sell it.

No one realized that Cretaceous and Maelstrom emerged from the water with Snorlax holding on to both of them. Sneasel was on Cretaceous and Wynaut was on Maelstrom. "Well now, those two have a healthy appetite." Wynaut said. "Still not as big as mine." Snorlax mentioned.

Sneasel patted Cretaceous a bit. "Now there's a couple of good boys. But, I bet you two would want something else to eat. Am I right?" Cretaceous and Maelstrom growled a yes to Sneasel's question. "Well, an unusual group of animals and Pokemon are off to the end of the valley as we speak. I'm sure you'll be pleased with the taste, won't you?" Sneasel asked. Proof that Sneasel and Wynaut spend a lot of time with their hyena friends, they would help them get a bite to eat.

To answer the question, Cretaceous and Maelstrom dove underwater and swam off with the two troublemakers and former giant.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a completely different part of the lake, Scrat recovered from the unexpected ride from earlier and was now searching for his prized nut.

He was sniffing at the thin ice he was on until he spotted his prize underneath the ice in the water. He tried to bite through the ice first, but that didn't work.

Annoyed, Scrat stomped on the ice three times, but he yelped when he flipped himself under the water while the acorn was now on top of the ice.

Not sure how that happened, but Scrat tried to flip himself to the surface, only to end up in the same spot. He tried to do it slowly this time, clinging to the edge of the ice, but then he began to flip the ice rapidly. He tried to run to stay on the surface, only to end up flipping with the ice. It even knocked the acorn away while Scrat ended up underwater once again.

The acorn was sliding on the ice. Scrat, with the amount of air he had, scurried upside down after it. At one point, he managed to poked his nose out to sniff the air. However, the acorn was sucked into his direction, blocking his nostrils, making him unable to breath. Scrat had to act fast in order to breath again, so he blew it off his nose where it clucked and landed.

Painfully pulling his head up to the surface, Scrat smiled when he spotted his prized nut not that far. There was still one problem, he was stuck! Then he used his teeth to cut circle in the ice. Once he was done, Scrat pulled himself out of the water...but he still had the ice circle around his neck. It was making it hard for him to get the nut because it was heavy for him.

He rolled around to get the nut. He leaned forward to get it with his nose, but he leaned too far and the ice circle squished his face. The acorn was knocked into the air before it landed on a piece of ice floating in the water. Despite the pain, Scrat wasn't one to give up. He got back on his feet and stumbled to the edge so he can see where his acorn was...but he fell off the cliff and landed on the floating ice. It catapulted the acorn high into the air and it landed on a thin ice block tower, out of Scrat's reach.

Seeing where his prize landed this time, Scrat whimpered pitifully. Now what was he gonna do?

* * *

 **And so begins the journey to the end of the valley to escape the upcoming flood! At the same time, Sneasel's newest, and also wet, plan against the Pride Team begins to unfold! But, are they right? Are mammoth's extinct? Find out in the next chapter!**


	5. Two Possums & a Mammoth

**Here you go, Pride Team fans! Another chapter of the adventure to escape the flood! Three new faces joins the gang in this chapter! Have fun!**

* * *

By now, the Pride Team and the animals were over a hill on their way to the end of the valley. As they were walking, Dog saw some more ice chunks chipping off the dam. The sight of it made him whimper a little. This shows that time wasn't on their side for the moment.

As the Pride Team and the herd were walking through a meadow in the early afternoon, Sid, at times, would mention things about Manny being the last mammoth on the planet. Dog, thinking of a way to help get his mind off the dam, would often side with Sid. The two of them would sometimes sing a bit, but it was the one thing that annoyed the other nine.

" ** _~Someday, when you've gone extinct, when you make a stink~_** " Dog sang.

"Dog, shush." Cat ordered, annoyed.

"Okie-dokie, Cat." Dog replied.

Nighttime came and they were passing up a hill. The moon was out, but even that wasn't enough to sooth the group, thanks to Dog and Sid.

" _ **~Stop, hey, what's that sound? All the mammoths are in the ground!~**_ " Sid sang.

"Oy. Will you quit singing, Sid?" Timon asked, annoyed. He was laying on Pumbaa's back and covered his ears to drown out the singing.

They were passing a forest early the next day, and Sid and Dog were still singing. This next one they sang together.

" _ **~If your species will continue, clap your hands.~**_ " Dog and Sid sang. Sid even clapped his hands twice.

The singing was too much for Max, he couldn't take it anymore. "Sid, Dog! Sing one more song about extinction and I'll ask Manny to fall on you two, and this time he will kill you!" Max snapped at the sloth and the dog half.

"Okay, sorry. Just trying to get my mind off the flood." Dog apologized. He then whispered to Sid, "Looks like he's one Pokemon that doesn't like the classics." Sid nodded in agreement at that.

"I heard that." Max said. Thank the Pikachu ears of his.

Now they were continuing the trip in silence. Then Manny saw his reflection in a bunch of melting icicles next to them. Now it looked like he was starting to believe what everyone else was saying about mammoths. "What if they're right? What if I am the last mammoth?" Manny asked his friends.

"Oh come on, Manny. There could be more mammoths outside these ice walls that are surrounding this valley." Cat assured.

"I'd listen to Cat. Don't let what they said back there get to you." Kate floated next to Manny and gently patted his right tusk.

"Besides, look on the bright side, you have us." Sid said happily. This made the Pride Team and Diego roll their eyes with exasperated expressions on their faces.

"Not your most persuasive argument, Sid." Riolu sighed. "I mean Max might be the only human turned Pokemon in the world, but that doesn't mean mammoths are extinct." What Riolu said quietly got Max's attention.

"What do you mean by that, Riolu?" Max asked his partner. His eyes narrowing a little.

Riolu shrugged, "What can I say? The only Pokemon I've seen that was once a human being happens to be you. Throughout our adventures, I've never met another human that got turned into a Pokemon."

Max seemed to have taken that the wrong way. "So, you're saying I stick out like a sore thumb?" He sounded hurt and disappointed when he asked. Kate turned to see Max and Riolu talking about Max being a human once.

Riolu realized his mistake and tried to fix it. "What? No! That's not what I meant! I-" He was cut off when everyone heard the echoing sound of trumpeting throughout the air and the trees. Listening carefully, it sounded kinda familiar and close.

"You guys hear a trumpeting sound?" Simba asked. Pumbaa smiled sheepishly, "Sorry." Timon shook his head. "Not you. Somewhere else!"

"Well, what do you think it could be?" Cat asked. "Mammoths?" Diego asked with a smirk of hope.

"I knew I couldn't be the last one! I felt it in my gut!" Manny exclaimed happily. He was so happy, he didn't even noticed that he knocked Sid a bit with his right tusk. With the sloth hanging on, Manny ran off to the source of the sound. Screaming a bit, Sid quickly climbed up to sit on the mammoth's back.

"Hey! Wait for us!" Kate flew off after Manny. Diego followed as well, Dog ran for him and Cat. Pumbaa followed with Timon on his back, and finally Simba scooped up Max and Riolu on his back and followed after them.

Sid was having a bumpy ride and he ducked his head to avoid a branch while Manny ran pretty fast. Then they made a sharp turn to the left where Simba, Dog, and Diego nearly lost their footing. They regained their balance and continued the chase. As Dog was running, Cat was getting hit on the head by the ground.

Cat was getting hit by some twigs and rocks as Dog kept on running. "My body! My body! My body!" Cat kept screaming in pain at times.

"Extinct? Come on." Manny said to himself.

Eventually, the group caught up to Manny and Sid. Cat even managed to avoid getting hurt some more and now everyone was running side by side, flying in Kate's case. Sid was even having a little fun by speaking fast like a race announcer.

Finally, all eleven of them came to a clearing and skidded to a complete stop. Sid was launched off of Manny and he screamed as he skidded on the ground. He stopped next to a flower and a log, and then got hit by a small wind that came from the sound they were following. When it stopped, the flower was dead and Sid had a nasty taste in his mouth.

Turns out it wasn't mammoths making that sound...it was actually a jolly animal sitting on a log, clutching his stomach in discomfort from all of the farting he was doing. "Sorry. My stomach hates me." Jolly apologized when he realized what he just did in Sid's face.

Sid covered his nose and scurried back to his friends. Most of them were cringing in disgust from the smell.

"Yuck! I didn't think anything could smell worse than the garbage Dog eats, but I was wrong! I was so very wrong!" Cat pinched his nose and waved his hand in front of his face to blow the bad smell away.

"Ewww! Well, don't put that stink in extinction!" Sid sarcastically commented in disgust. Even Dog tied his ears around his nose to avoid the smell.

"Phew! What did that mook eat today?" Timon asked. Pumbaa plugged his nose with his front hooves.

"Man, that is nasty!" Riolu groaned.

Then they noticed that Manny was walking away from the group in sadness. That made them worry about the mammoth. "Manny?" Simba inquired, looking worried.

"I uh...I need to be alone for a while. You go on ahead. I'll catch up." Manny replied in sadness. He walked away into the woods, feeling bluer than some of Riolu's body parts.

Max, realizing that Manny was beginning to think he is the last mammoth living, couldn't help but think something similar himself. The poor human-turned Pikachu sighed a little and began to walk in the same direction Manny was heading.

The others saw this as well, and that worried them some more. "Max? Um, are you okay?" Pumbaa asked the Electric-Type leader.

"Guys, if you don't mind, I think I'm gonna hang back with Manny a bit. I've...got to do some thinking about myself." Max replied in sadness. His ears were drooping to prove that he was pretty sad.

"Come on, Max. Is this about what I said about you being the only human-turned Pokemon in existence?" Riolu asked. Max stopped, but he didn't turn around. All he did was slowly nod his head before he walked off again.

Kate and Simba had the same idea, so they looked at each other and nodded. "You guys go on ahead. Simba and I will be with Max and Manny." Kate told the other seven. "They could use a friend or two." Simba added. Without waiting to hear an answer from their friends, Kate and Simba rushed after Max and Manny to see if they could cheer them up.

Riolu, Sid, Diego, CatDog, Timon, and Pumbaa watched them go off to find their depressed friends. Riolu sighed in sadness, he couldn't help but feel guilty about what he said about his best pal. "I've been an insensitive Pokemon. Now thanks to me, Max is feeling as down as a very upset Dunsparce."

Dog moaned in sadness. "I wish there was something we could do to help them."

"One truly is the loneliest number." Sid mentioned. Just as they were about to get back on the trail, Sid was hit in the face by something small, hard and round. "Ow!"

Two more hit CatDog. "Yow!" Dog yelped. "Ouch!" Cat grunted.

Even Diego got hit with the same thing Sid and CatDog got hit with. "Ow! Hey!" Turning to where the rocks were coming from, they saw that hanging by their tails on a nearby tree were a pair of possums. One had blue eyes and a round nose while the other possum had brown eyes and a pointy nose. They both had stripy dark brown and white fur on their bodies.

The possums were holding reeds in their hands and laughing. "Ooh! These work great." the blue eyed possum, named Crash, said. He and his brother shot more tiny rocks at Diego and made him grunt in pain again. "Cool." the brown eyed possum, Eddie, said.

When they looked down, they saw an angry Diego rushing up to them and tried to swipe them with his claws. They managed to avoid the claws and fell off the tree branch. "Missed me, missed me, now you gotta kiss me." Eddie taunted. He followed his brother, leaping over a small cliff.

"I'll get 'em!" Sid dived after the possums, but he landed on the ground and got his head stuck on one of the many holes in the area.

The possums popped out half way and looked at the sloth. "Which end is up?" Crash asked his brother. Then Sid pulled his head free. "I'd hide that face too." Eddie replied. He ducked back in the hole before Sid could grab him.

"Hey, ugly!" Crash shot another rock at Sid's butt. "Ow! I gotta sit on that!" Sid kept trying to catch Crash and Eddie, but they kept ducking and dodging the sloth thanks to the holes. Sid thought he finally got them, "Gotcha!" But he looked to his left and saw the twins laughing at him.

They stopped laughing when a shadow covered them both. "Uh-oh." Crash muttered worriedly. They looked up and saw Diego grinning evilly at them. "Boo."

Crash and Eddie screamed before they ducked back in the holes just before Diego could grab them. One them managed to hit Diego with another pebble.

Cat narrowed his eyes at the two possums. "Someone should really teach those possums a thing or two." Hearing this made Dog smile. "You got it, Cat!" He then ran to join the hunt. Cat panicked and held on to a tree. "No! Wait! Someone not attached to me!" Forced to let go, CatDog almost landed on the possums, but missed.

Timon and Pumbaa decided to help out as well, but Timon nearly fell in a hole after he missed Crash and Pumbaa landed snout first after missing Eddie.

Riolu was just standing there, watching his friends having trouble in catching two slippery possums. He wasn't sure if he should help or not.

"Okay, I'm goin' in!" Sid called out, only to trip on one of the possums tails that Crash and Eddie made a trip line with. The sloth yelped when he rolled over Pumbaa, Timon, CatDog, and Diego before landing underneath the tiger.

"Sid!" Diego and Cat grunted in annoyance. "What?" Sid whined. Then they, Dog, Timon, and Pumbaa grunted when they got hit by more pebbles. The six of them tried to catch the possums, but kept on missing them.

"Nice miss!" Crash missed Pumbaa's hoof and landed in another hole. "Cover your side." Pumbaa told Dog. "Yes, Sir!" Dog replied.

"Ooh! I felt some breeze on that one." Crash grinned before he ducked into the hole to avoid Cat's hand.

"Smile!" Eddie got Dog with another pebble. Dog growled and tried to chomp on Eddie, but he ended up missing again.

The two possums kept falling into the holes and taunting the six that were trying to get them. Eddie blew a raspberry at Diego while Crash bounced off the saber's head.

"Out of my way!" Sid hovered over Timon to try and get one of the possums, but missed again.

"Sid!" Timon groaned. He glared at Eddie who popped up with a taunting wave, "Hello!" Eddie dived in to avoid the meerkat.

"Over here!" Crash cheekily cried out. Sid, Diego, CatDog, Timon, and Pumbaa ended tangling into each other while they tried to get the two possums who stood next to each other and grinned at the six of them. "Surrender?" Crash teased.

"Never!" Sid, Diego, Timon, Pumbaa, and CatDog declared. They were not gonna surrender to two possums. "Cool." the twins said at the same time. Then they dived back down into the holes.

"Smoke them!" Crash yelled once he and Eddie jumped up high. The six looked above them, and once the possums took a deep breath, they shot multiple pebbles at the six of them. As soon as Crash and Eddie landed into the holes and loosing their reeds, Timon, Pumbaa, Sid, Diego, and CatDog lost their balance and fell on top of each other.

Riolu rushed over to his friends. "Are you guys okay?"

Timon managed to be on the bottom as he tried to squeeze himself out. "Does it look like we're okay, Riolu?"

Cat sighed, "If anybody asks, there were fifty of them." Diego continued for him, "And uh, they were...rattlesnakes."

Pumbaa panted a bit, "Gee. I think I need to work out once this is over."

The twins reappeared on another hill and over a tree root. They were laughing in victory. "Here, kitty kitty!" Eddie even taunted the group and wiggled his butt at them.

Cat glared at the possums angrily. "You're messing with the wrong cat, you miscreants!"

"Miscreants?" Eddie asked in confusion. Then he and Crash laughed hysterically.

"Uh, Cat, they're possums." Sid corrected, but all that got him were some annoyed glares from the others minus Dog and Pumbaa.

Crash and Eddie began to cluck like chickens to taunt some more.

Finally having enough, Diego gave off a loud roar and pounced after them. Cat was just as annoyed and wasn't that far behind the saber.

Crash and Eddie knew that they were in trouble now. "Retreat!" Crash screamed hysterically. He jumped into Eddie's arms while Eddie screamed before turning to run away.

Diego and Cat, as well as the rest of the group, chased after the possums...right down the trail Manny, Max, Kate, and Simba had taken earlier.

* * *

Simba and Kate watched as Manny stopped at a nearby lake. Max was not too close next to the mammoth. The two of them were sadly looking at their reflection in the water.

"I guess it's just you and me now." Manny muttered to his reflection. "It's just the two of us from now on, isn't it?" Max asked his own reflection.

Kate flew over and tried to comfort the depressed human-turned Pikachu. "Now, Max. Don't let what Riolu said back there get to you. You know he didn't mean to make you sad."

"But, Kate, what if he's right? What if I am the only human that got turned into a Pokemon? I'll always end up as the Pikachu who stands out in a crowd of many Pokemon and animals. Past, present, or future." Max said sadly.

Kate gently rubbed Max's back in sympathy. "Well, you never know. You might get lucky and find another Pokemon that was once a human."

"I doubt that will happen anytime soon." Max said. Kate just kept rubbing Max's back gently, neither Pokemon said another word.

Seeing that Kate was trying to comfort Max, Simba decided to keep Manny company. Just as the mammoth was about to wander with his three friends some more...

"Ah!" The four of them yelped in fright when something appeared in front of them. The figure screamed and the other four screamed a second afterwards.

The figure fell to the ground in front of them. Manny, Max, Kate, and Simba got a good look at what was in front of them. It was another mammoth, a female mammoth who brushed a branch off her face and looked up at the four of them.

"Is that...?" Simba tried to ask.

"I knew it! I knew I wasn't the only one." Manny cheered happily. He was now relieved to find out that he isn't the last mammoth after all.

Sensing that these four weren't a threat, the female mammoth stood up. "Me too! Everybody falls out of the tree every now and then, they just don't admit it."

Manny, Max, Simba, and Kate raised confused eyebrows at that. "What do you mean?" Kate asked in confusion.

"Some of us have a tough time holding on to branches. I mean it's not like we're bats or something. We don't have wings to keep us like like the wings you've got." the mammoth pointed at Kate's wings.

Kate, Manny, Simba, and Max looked up at the tree and saw some broken branches. They realized that the female mammoth was climbing on the tree.

"Okay, and you were in the tree because...?" Max asked, dumbfound. When they looked back, they saw that the female mammoth was climbing up another tree, one that was much smaller.

"Oh, I was looking for my brothers. They are always getting into trouble." the female mammoth replied.

That made Manny hopeful some more. "Brothers? You mean there's more?"

"Sure. Whoa!" the female mammoth fell and landed on her back, but she was okay. "There's lots of us."

"Amazing! Where?" Simba asked.

They were confused when the female mammoth replied like she didn't get the real picture. "Uh...everywhere? Under rocks. In holes in the ground." She stood up on her feet to whisper something to the four of them. "Usually, we come out at night so birds don't carry us off."

"Huh?" Max, Kate, Simba, and Manny blinked in confusion.

"Help! Help! Help!" Crash's voice cried out. The five of them turned and saw Crash and Eddie running away from Diego, CatDog, Timon, Sid, Pumbaa, and Riolu. But once they saw the female mammoth, the seven of them stopped and Crash and Eddie hid behind her.

"Well, shave me down and call me a mole-rat." Sid said.

"High-Ho-Diggety! You've found another mammoth!" Dog cheered happily.

The female mammoth looked around, looking surprised. "Where? Wait a minute, I thought mammoths were extinct." She then saw that the herd and the Pride Team were looking at her with dumbfound expressions on their faces. "What are you looking at me for?"

"Well, maybe it's because you're a mammoth." Simba awkwardly answered the question.

"Me?" the female mammoth then shook her head a little. "Don't be ridiculous. I'm not a mammoth. I'm a possum."

Max chuckled a little. "Good one, ma'am. I'm a Piplup. These are my friends a Spheal, a Cubchoo, a deer, an aardvark, a bear, two dodos attached to each other, a newt, a badger, and finally a platypus."

Sid didn't like Max calling him a platypus. "Why do I gotta be the platypus? Make him the platypus." He pointed at Diego.

The female mammoth gave them a suspicious look. Then Crash and Eddie got on her tusks. "These guys giving you trouble, sis?" Crash asked the mammoth. Talking about Max, Simba, Manny, and Kate.

"Sis!?" Max and the other ten exclaimed in shock and disbelief.

"That's right. These are my brothers. Possum, possum, possum." the mammoth pointed her trunk at Crash, then Eddie, and finally herself.

"Well, that explains why she was climbing up trees." Max whispered to Manny.

"You know, I don't think her tree goes up to the tallest branch." Timon whispered. "No kidding." Manny whispered back in agreement. Crash and Eddie looked away in annoyance, but the female mammoth smiled innocently.

"Timon, brink of extinction is a bad time for Manny to be picky." Pumbaa muttered to his bestest best friend. Agreeing with the warthog, an idea came to Sid. "Hey, she should come with us."

"Are you insane? No way." Manny shook his head. He wasn't pretty happy about the idea.

"Okay." Sid just shrugged. Then he stepped forward to talk to the female mammoth. "Manny wants me to ask you if you'd like to escape the flood with us."

"What!?" Max, Simba, and Manny exclaimed softly. Neither one of them gave the sloth permission to ask something like that.

Crash and Eddie didn't quite like that idea either, so they stormed up to Cat. "I'd rather be roadkill!" Eddie said, being stubborn.

"That can easily be arranged, rodent!" Cat growled. Cat, Crash, and Eddie were growling and glaring at each other.

The female mammoth giggled nervously. "Ah ha, funny. Let me have a little word with my brothers." She pulled Crash and Eddie away from Cat, who was being held back by Kate.

Now the female mammoth was having a little word with the two possums. "Ellie, are you crazy? We're not going with them!" Eddie protested right away. He and Crash didn't trust those guys. I mean, they have a creature with two heads with them, for crying out loud!

The mammoth, Ellie, then made her own point to the two of them. "Look, we'll never make it in time if we only travel at night. These guys can protect us out in the open. What do you say?" Crash and Eddie had to admit, Ellie was making some good points. Still, they were giving skeptical looks at their sister.

Annoyed, Simba smacked Sid in the back of the head. "Ow!" Sid yelped.

"Why did you invite them?" Simba whispered in annoyance.

"Because, she and Manny might be the last two mammoths left on Earth." Sid pointed out.

"He has a point." Riolu agreed.

"Okay, since when did we become a part of this dating service?" Max asked sarcastically.

They turned back to the other three just as Ellie made an announcement to them. "My brothers and I would be delighted to come with you."

"Well, this is just great." Timon whispered in exasperation. He REALLY didn't want to deal with Crash and Eddie anymore.

"If you treat us nicely." Crash added stubbornly at Cat who hissed at him. "See that? Now that's the total opposite of nice." He pointed out to Ellie.

"Maybe we'll let Diego and Simba have a little snack before we get back on the road." Cat muttered darkly. He began to walk away.

"You want a piece of us? Let's go." Eddie challenged. Then he catapulted Crash into the air before anyone could stop him.

"Banzai!" Crash yelled. He then landed on Cat's head and began to pull on his ears while Cat yelped in alarm.

"I'll save you, Cat!" Dog cried out to save his brother. But he yelped when Eddie used his own tail like a whip on Dog.

"Back! Back! Yah! Yah!" Eddie yelled. He got Dog to back up a little.

Cat managed to get Crash off his head. Now he holding the possum in one hand and tried to claw him with the other. Crash was holding Cat's hand back. "You know the best part? This two-headed freak is no match for us!" Crash grinned.

Everything came to a sudden halt when the ground began to rumble and the sound of the ice breaking from the dam echoed throughout the entire valley. This made all fourteen of them nervous until the noise and rumbling stopped. For the moment they didn't have much options if they want to escape the flood.

Cat gulped and dropped Crash to the ground, that made Eddie cringe a bit.

"Okay. Thanks to Sid, we're now travelling together, and like it or not, we're gonna be one big, happy family." Manny began to speak to everyone firmly. "I'll be the daddy, Ellie will be the mommy, and Diego and Simba will be the uncles who eat the children who get on my nerves. Now let's move it before the ground falls out from under our feet!" The male mammoth began to take the lead.

"I thought fat guys were supposed to be jolly." Ellie half-sarcastically commented to her brothers.

Manny overheard that and was annoyed by the comment. "I'm not fat. It's this fur, it makes me look big. It's poofy."

"Oh, okay." Ellie chuckled in fake apology. "He's fat." She muttered to Crash and Eddie.

Now all fourteen of them got back on the road to the boat at the end of the valley.

* * *

Back at the dam, more ice began to crumble away and the wall was becoming thinner and thinner under the heat and the sun.

The only one who didn't move away from the dam was Scrat. Now free from the ice that was around his neck, he came up with another plan to get his acorn.

He was judging the distance, angle, and height level of where his prize was currently located with his paws. Next, he took hold of a long, thin stick. Licked his finger and held it up to judge the wind. Not even a breeze.

Scrat breathed in deeply and puffed out his chest. Then, running as fast as he could, he prepared to catapult himself over to his acorn. However, once he got to the edge, he scurried to the top of the stick to try and reach his nut. Turns out he miscalculated the size of the stick and missed his acorn by a little bit.

"Aaaah!" Scrat screamed and fell down all the way into the water.

* * *

 **Here we go! Now Ellie, Crash, Eddie join the gang to escape the upcoming flood! The road to the boat is not gonna be easy, especially with dangerous and unexpected obstacles that's yet to come! Hopefully, they'll be able to get along with each other while trying to get to the end of the valley. Find out how it goes in the next chapter! See ya soon!**


	6. Danger on Thin Ice

**Here, the Pride Team, the herd, Eliie, Crash, and Eddie continue onward towards the end of the valley. But, they run into a little more trouble along the way. Enjoy!**

* * *

The animals walked along a dirt road filled with a dead tree and a bush or two. Fast Tony was there trying to con the animals again, he was now standing on top of the empty shell that used to be Stu.

"Folks! Escaping the flood is the perfect time to shed those unsightly pounds with Fast Tony's Disaster Diet." Fast Tony then rolled in front of a female wallebeast. "You, ma'am! You look like a big, fat, hairy beast. How would you like to lose a ton or two, eh?"

At first, she was insulted, but then she agreed to it. "Would I ever?"

Her husband came and glared at Fast Tony. "Don't listen to him, Vera." As they walked away, he smiled at his wife. "You're already thin as a twig."

"Whoa ho! I also have the perfect cure for your eyesight, my blind friend." Fast Tony called out. When he looked behind him suddenly, he saw the same Pikachu from before and his 'herd' walking over. He quickly curled up and rolled away to avoid being seen by them.

The Pride Team and the herd didn't even notice Fast Tony and kept walking down the trail. However, the three new members were not making this trip any easier. If anything, they were kinda slowing them down.

Crash and Eddie, hiding in small bushes, were sneaking up to the dead tree in the area, looking out for any predators that might eat them and their sister. Seeing that the coast was clear, Crash nodded once before Eddie whistled out.

Ellie's disguise wasn't as good as Crash and Eddie's, but she still slowly made her way over to the tree. She quickly went to hide behind it after she missed it. Max and the other ten couldn't believe what they were seeing.

"Oy. We'll never make it at this pace." Timon groaned in annoyance.

Max then tried to call out to the mammoth. "Ellie! You can lose the disguise! You and your brothers are safe!"

"Okay." Ellie replied, but she didn't believe him. "Safe? Please. Crash, Eddie, you two go scope it out."

"What'cha got?" Crash asked. He and Eddie were doing some ridiculous spy movements while they were looking out for any predators.

"Perimeter looks to be all clear, cap'n." Eddie replied.

"Roger that. One-niner, over." Crash added. Then he held a stick over his head while he was over his brother.

"Roger, over, victor...Ow!" Eddie got smacked by the stick Crash was holding. Now the two of them were wrestling each other.

"Guys!" Ellie impatiently called up.

Crash and Eddie paused to answer her. "All clear!" Crash replied. Ellie stood up and followed the others. Crash and Eddie were still wrestling each other even when they got on the ground. But then, a caw and a bird's shadow made them stop.

"Hawk!" Eddie cried out in horror. The two possums ran in circles, but then they played dead and landed on their backs. Since she still thinks she's a possum, Ellie landed on her back to do the same as her brothers.

Simba found a mammoth playing dead to be an odd sight to see. "Uh, Ellie? What are you doing?"

"Playing dead." Ellie quietly answered the lion.

Max shook his head a little. "This is definitely the strangest day of my life."

Sid smiled when he saw Ellie playing dead. "Manny, why don't you do that?" He suggested.

Manny rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Because I'm a mammoth!"

"But, you'd do it for treats, right?" Sid teased.

"Is he gone?" Ellie asked hopefully.

They glanced up at the sky and saw that the hawk was flying away. "Yeah, he's gone. You're safe now." Kate replied with a smile.

Ellie, Crash, and Eddie sighed in relief after hearing the Togetic. The possums were helping their mammoth sister up to her feet. "Aw, man. If you weren't here, that hawk would've swooped down and snatched me up for dinner. That's how cousin Wilton went." Ellie said.

Once the trio walked off, Sid glanced at Diego and twirled his finger beside his head, whistling in the 'she's crazy' way. That just made the others, minus Pumbaa and Dog, glare at him in annoyance.

"Remember, Sid. This was your idea." Riolu reminded the sloth. Sid waved sheepishly a little.

* * *

A little while after that, Manny and Ellie were walking side-by-side, talking about their species...or as Ellie thinks, Manny's species.

"Boy, I really feel for you. I do. I can't even imagine what it'd be like to be the last one of your species." Ellie sounded like she felt sorry for Manny.

"I'm not the last one." Manny was annoyed, but he tried to not show it.

"Oh, you brave, brave soul. That's right, don't give up hope." Ellie tapped Manny's head with her trunk, trying to pity him.

Behind the mammoths, Max was still trying to think back to what Riolu was saying about him being the only human-turned Pokemon on the planet. But then his mind went to Kate trying to make him feel better. He sighed, "Kate, I know you're trying to cheer me up, but I might just be the only human-turned Pokemon in the world."

Even though Max quietly said that, Ellie was still able to hear him. She went over to the Pikachu and pitied him like she did to Manny. "Oh, you poor little soul. Don't give up hope just yet." Like she did with Manny, Ellie patted Max's head with her trunk.

By now, Max confessed to the other Pride Team members about being a human being in the past. If they were going to be going on adventures together, Max thought it was best to trust his friends with the truth.

Manny sighed before he tried to convince Ellie about who she really is. "Ellie?" He got her attention and then pointed to the footprints made in the muddy ground. "Look at our footprints. They're the same shape." He placed his foot on one of the prints to prove his point.

"Well, how do I know those aren't your footprints?" Ellie wasn't convinced just by footprints.

Manny tried another approach, this time with their shadows. "Well, then...look at our shadows. We match."

Ellie took a good look at the shadows herself. "You're right...they're the same!" Manny and Max began to smile, think that Ellie was finally understanding...however, that quickly went away with what she said next. "You must be part possum."

After that, Manny and Max just stood there and watch Ellie enthusiastically walk away.

Crash and Eddie were walking by next. "You wish." Crash replied, even though no one was talking to him. He and Eddie gave each other a high-five.

Manny looked annoyed and began to follow them while Max sighed in exasperation.

* * *

A little while later, the Pride Team, the herd, Ellie, Crash, and Eddie were now walking down a path of thin ice that was above deep water. Even though the ice was thin, it was strong enough to hold Manny and Ellie. There were some puddles here and there though.

Riolu looked behind him and noticed that Diego was lagging behind, looking at the puddles nervously. "Come on, Diego! There are Slowpokes carrying Munchlaxs on their backs moving faster than you! Let's get moving, we've gotta catch up with the others!" Riolu called out.

Diego couldn't show his friends that he actually is afraid of the water like what Sid teased him about back on top of the eviscerator.

The melting ice didn't seem to bother Crash and Eddie. The two possums were playing around and sliding on the melting ice, laughing and cheering as they did.

"Hey! Settle down!" Cat snapped. He, like Diego, wasn't much of a fan of the water himself, so he didn't want any sudden fast and rough movements to break the ice from under their feet.

In annoyance, Eddie stopped and leaned against Ellie's leg. He grabbed Crash's tail to get his brother to stop as well. "Oh, cry me a river, barking-tail cat. Have some fun." Crash rolled his eyes while Eddie nodded in agreement.

Both Cat and Diego's ears were pulled back in annoyance and, secretly in Diego's case, fear. "Do I need to point out that the ice is thin enough without you two wearing it down?" Cat asked in annoyance.

Dog, not at all worried, tried to assure Cat with a smile. "Now worries, Cat. The ice might be thin, but it's strong enough to hold a ten-ton mammoth like Manny as well as a nine-ton possum like Ellie."

Hearing what Dog said just made Cat and Diego grumble and quickened their pace to catch up to their friends. They were now walking through a part of the ice they can see through, but since they didn't, they've failed to notice something swimming under the ice. Still, Max, Simba, and Manny stopped when they sensed that something was wrong. They also heard some of the water flowing, but didn't see what was causing it.

Max's ears were twitching a bit. "Guys, we should be careful. Something's telling me we're not alone here." He called to the others.

Timon and Pumbaa stopped and looked around. "Are you sure, Max?" Pumbaa asked nervously. "Tell me you're just pulling our tails." Timon said hopefully.

Crash and Eddie were still playing around. They ended up playfully slapping each other, but that's when something broke through the ice from underneath them all. All fourteen of them screamed in alarm when a big green fish leaped out of the water and roared at them. Next thing they knew, they were all split up by the sudden appearance.

It was Maelstrom! He and Cretaceous, under the guidance of Sneasel, Wynaut, and Snorlax, were stalking them from the water. Maelstrom landed on the ice Sid and CatDog were on just as they were about to run away, but they were sent flying into the air.

"Mammal and two-headed creature overboard!" Sid screamed out. CatDog just screamed and flailed their arms in the air. Then they landed underwater.

Diego was on a smaller, and a bit more unstable, piece of floating ice. He struggled to stay on, but he dug his claws in the edges and just stood there, frozen with fear.

Kate was flying in the air when she heard Sid and CatDog gasp for air. She looked down and gasped when she saw her brothers and Sid struggling to swim for safety and that Diego was just standing on floating ice. As he was swimming with Sid and Dog, Cat was pretty much lost in his own wet fear. "Water! I'm in water! And with dangerous sea creatures! KATE, SAVE ME!" Cat screamed out for his and Dog's Pokemon sister.

"I'm coming, Cat!" Kate flew down to help her brother and two friends.

From the shore and the others, Max, Simba, and Manny jumped when Cretaceous broke through the ice near them and hissed at them in hunger. The three of them screamed and made a run for it to the shore. However, Cretaceous went back underwater to follow them.

Crash and Eddie worried for Ellie's safety and rushed over to the floating ice she was unconscious on. "Ellie, get up!" Eddie pleaded once he and Crash got to her.

"If you play dead, you'll BE dead!" Crash called out. "Look at me!" He then pulled on Ellie's eyelids and slapped her eyeball to get her to snap out of it.

Ellie woke up screaming after that. Remembering what was happening, she made a run for the shore with Crash and Eddie right behind her.

Riolu and Pumbaa were running, with Timon on Riolu's back for once. All three of them were wondering where the others were.

"Hey! Where are Simba, Max and the others?" Pumbaa asked. "I don't know, but I hope they're okay! Let's just hope those two big fish didn't get 'em!" Riolu replied.

Timon then saw something ahead of them. "Those two fish didn't come alone, Riolu! Look out!" The meerkat pointed at what was in front of them.

The three of them stopped and saw Sneasel, Wynaut, and Snorlax in front of them. "Hey there, Pride Team bozos!" Sneasel cheekily greeted Riolu, Timon, and Pumbaa.

Riolu narrowed his eyes. "There you are, Sneasel! You know, we've been looking for you and Wynaut!"

"Just the two of us? Not anyone else?" Wynaut asked. "Not even him? 'Cause, from what he told us, he's got some kind of bone to pick with you!" Sneasel pointed to Snorlax standing behind them.

The three team members looked at the Pokemon behind the two Outsiders. "Oh great! Just what we need! Another troublemaker to mess with us!" Timon groaned in annoyance.

"Wait, haven't we seen a Pokemon with a hat and vest like that before?" Pumbaa suddenly asked. The question got the three of them narrowing their eyes to look at the Snorlax carefully. Once they got a good look at the small red hat and blue vest on the Pokemon, they recognized who the new troublemaker REALLY is.

Riolu gasped in shock in disbelief. "I don't believe it! It's Snorlax the Giant!" Timon and Pumbaa screamed in fear.

"That's Snorlax the FORMER Giant now! Thanks to you and that shocking little friend of yours!" Snorlax corrected. He glared at the Pokemon, meerkat, and warthog in front of him, Sneasel, and Wynaut.

Cretaceous completely ignored Sid and CatDog and continued his chase for Max, Simba, and Manny. Sid and CatDog kept on swimming, with Cat whimpering in total fear. They were swimming over to the ice Diego was on.

"Diego!" Sid called out, but the saber was too frozen to even notice. "Diego!"

Cat suddenly looked behind them, and screamed when he saw Maelstrom swimming to them. "Faster, Dog! Faster!" Cat swam faster, dragging Dog with him. Dog was able to grab Sid's hands as Cat quickly swam over to Diego. They got on the ice with Diego, but Maelstrom was still swimming their way.

While Diego was still frozen, Sid and CatDog were the only ones that screamed. "Diego! Let's get outta here! Hurry, before that big mean, green fishy eats us for lunch!" Dog pleaded. He, Cat, and Sid tried to push and pull Diego out of his frozen state. Sid yelped when he saw Maelstrom coming closer.

Sid then thought of a desperate idea to get Diego to move again. "This may sting a little." He apologetically told the tiger before he bit hard on his friend's tail.

It worked and Diego roared in pain, back to his senses. The four of them ran off just as Maelstrom tried to chomp them down. Sid, Diego, and CatDog made a run for it to the shore, but then Maelstrom leaped up and got ready to eat CatDog. Seeing this, CatDog screamed in terror, but then...

"GET AWAY FROM MY BROTHERS!" Kate flew in front of Maelstrom and used her Dazzling Gleam on him. She blasted him back into the water with a powerful flash.

Kate floated a little closer to the ground just as Cat grabbed her in a tight hug. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" He quickly said. Maelstrom surfaced and swam to them again.

Just as they got to the shore, Maelstrom chomped on the ground and glared at them. Kate then forced him back into the water with Magical Leaf.

The five of them panted hard. Kate was on her legs on the ground, Diego weakly stood on his feet, and Sid and CatDog plopped on the ground in exhaustion.

Riolu was clashing against Sneasel, Ice Punch against Metal Claw. Neither one of them were backing down. Timon and Pumbaa screamed as they ran around. They were running from Snorlax's Hidden Power attack and Wynaut was trying to stop them.

"I thought Snorlax was dangerous as a giant, but this is worse!" Timon yelled. He and Pumbaa were bounced back by the barrier made by Wynaut's Safeguard. "Gotcha!" Wynaut yelled out to the meerkat and warthog duo.

Sneasel fired a Dark Pulse attack on Riolu who used Vacuum Wave to counter it. "You can't beat me like this, Sneasel!" Riolu yelled. Sneasel smirked all of a sudden. "I don't have to."

"Huh?" Riolu asked in confusion. Then he crashed to the ice when Timon and Pumbaa landed on him. Luckily the ice didn't break some more when that happened.

"Sorry." Pumbaa apologized. They looked up to see the three Outsiders standing in front of them, chuckling. "Nice work, Wynaut." Sneasel commented.

Riolu grunted as he tried to stand up. "I-I don't get it. How could Snorlax be here...and the size of a regular Snorlax? I thought he was gone for good when he landed in the waterhole." Riolu wanted answers to this. Timon and Pumbaa stood next to him, just as confused about this as he was.

"Turns out I'm a survivor in a way." Snorlax said.

"After your encounter with the big guy up in the skies, his big splash in the water did kill him in a way. It just killed his title of giant." Sneasel explained.

"He told us that a bright light that was at the bottom of the waterhole shined upon him and shrunk him down to the size of a regular Snorlax." Wynaut added.

"Bright light?" Riolu asked in confusion.

Snorlax looked pretty angry. "That's right! It's because of that light that I'm like this! I was a happy-go-lucky giant living up in my castle in the sky. Now, thanks to you and that Pikachu, I'm stuck down on the ground like a regular Snorlax without anyway to get back up to my home!"

"Hey! We were just minding our own business as an adventure team! We didn't even know what was going on until we saw Kate and CatDog in that box!" Timon glared back at Snorlax.

"We're really sorry about what we did, Snorlax." Pumbaa tried to apologize.

"Oh? Sorry? You're sorry!? You really think 'sorry' is gonna change me back and take me back home, Pig?" Snorlax asked in anger. Sneasel and Wynaut froze when they heard Snorlax call Pumbaa a pig. "Tell me he didn't just say that." Sneasel told Wynaut. "Believe me, I REALLY wish I could!" Wynaut whimpered.

Pumbaa looked mad because of what Snorlax called him. "What did you call me?" Pumbaa asked.

Riolu looked pretty confused. "Uh, Pumbaa?"

Timon then pulled Riolu back. "We may want to stand back. Trust me on this."

"You heard me, Pig!" Snorlax answered. Making Pumbaa angrier and making Sneasel and Wynaut more nervous.

"What are you doing? Don't call him that again!" Wynaut pleaded to Snorlax.

"What? You mean Pig?" Snorlax asked in confusion.

"Stop saying that word in front of that warthog!" Sneasel pointed to an angry Pumbaa.

Not getting the fear, Snorlax just shrugged. "Why not? He IS a pig, isn't he?"

"You're REALLY pushing buttons you shouldn't touch! Please, stop saying that!" Wynaut begged.

"You two are really scared of that pig?" Snorlax pointed at Pumbaa. The warthog looked angrier and angrier every time he was called pig.

"I'll give you 100 Poke to stop calling him that right now! If you don't stop now, the consequences WILL be dire!" Sneasel snapped. He and Wynaut remembered the last time someone called Pumbaa a pig.

Snorlax didn't look scared one bit. "You two worry too much. Calling that pig a pig isn't hurting anyone. Watch." He turned to angry Pumbaa. "You are definitely a pig! P-I-G! Piggy-Pig-Pig! A very wild PIG!"

"YOU'RE KILLING US, YOU IDIOT!" Sneasel shouted in anger. Wynaut took a look at Pumbaa and then just tapped Sneasel in fear.

"Ooh, now they're REALLY in for it." Timon muttered. "Why? What's going on?" Riolu asked in confusion. Timon chuckled, "Just watch and you'll find out."

Pumbaa was so angry, steam was shooting from his nostrils and his eyes were red.

"Uh-oh! We're gonna get it now!" Wynaut whimpered while Sneasel screamed a bit. They were shaking and holding each other with Snorlax behind the two in confusion.

Finally, Pumbaa spoke up. "They call me...Mr. PIIIIIIIIIIIIG!" In anger, he charged fast towards the three Outsiders. He rammed the three so hard, he sent them flying high in the sky and away from the area.

That not only shocked Riolu, but also Snorlax as well.

As the three Outsiders were sent flying away from the Pride Team, Snorlax turned to Sneasel and Wynaut. "Let me guess, THAT was one of the dire consequences you were talking about, right?"

Sneasel and Wynaut glared at Snorlax in annoyance. "Yes. It was." Wynaut replied. "We found that out the hard way when our hyena friend, Banzai, called that warthog a pig. We were in so much pain that day, we made a vow to never call that warthog a pig EVER again!" Sneasel explained. The Outsiders then screamed as they were sent flying away.

Pumbaa panted to cool himself down. "Well, that takes care of those three for a while." Timon replied casually. Riolu's mouth was hung open in shock, but he quickly closed it when he remembered the others.

"We can worry about how we're gonna get them back to our time period later! Come on, guys! We've gotta get off the ice before those fish get us!" Riolu ran off to the shore. Getting the message, Pumbaa and Timon followed the Fighting-Type Pokemon to the shore.

Max, Simba, and Manny were on another icy platform, still away from the shore and still wondering where Cretaceous was. Suddenly, the purple fish jumped out in front of them, even though he didn't have any legs. The Pikachu, the lion, and the mammoth jumped in terror and tried to back away to avoid the purple fish. Max was even using his Grass Knot as a whip to keep Cretaceous away, but the fish easily ripped the glowing grass in half. Seeing that his Grass-Type attack didn't do much on Cretaceous, Max gulped in fear and backed up until his tail was touching Manny's trunk.

Their movements made the ice they were on tilt, and now Cretaceous was above them, opening his jaws for a bite after he leaped. Max, Simba, and Manny closed their eyes tight, waiting for the attack.

They didn't feel anything, so they opened their eyes to see what happened. Turns out, Cretaceous got his jaws stuck against Manny's tusks when the mammoth tilted his head a bit.

They heard gasps behind them, so Manny, Simba, and Max turned their eyes to see Ellie, Crash, and Eddie on the shore behind the Pikachu, the lion, and the male mammoth. The female mammoth and the two possums were watching with eyes wide in horror and disbelief.

With sudden determination, Max, Simba, and Manny silently nodded their heads. First, Manny tossed Cretaceous off his tusks. Next, Simba grabbed the fish's tail fin with his teeth and used all of his might to toss Cretaceous into the air. Finally, Max jumped off Manny's back and fired an Electro Ball at Cretaceous, making the fish land back into the water.

Landing back on the platform, Max glared out into the water where Cretaceous and Maelstrom glared back before they slowly dove back into the water.

Seeing that they were out of danger for the moment, the herd and the Pride Team gathered on the shore to safety. They were glancing out at the water once again.

"What in the name of Kyogre was that?" Riolu asked.

Diego didn't have much of a clue himself. "I don't know, but from now on, land safe, water...not safe."

"You said it, brother." Cat agreed with the saber instantly.

The eleven of them walked over to Ellie, Crash, and Eddie. "That was the bravest thing I've ever seen." Ellie said.

"Oh. You really think so?" Max asked with a smile. "It was nothing, really. We uh..." Manny started, but Ellie spoke again.

"Oh, it's not a compliment. To a possum, bravery is just dumb." Ellie turned away to walk and continue the journey.

"Yeah, we're spineless." Crash proudly added. "Lilly-livered." Eddie added. They turned around to follow their sister.

"Maybe mammoths are going extinct because they put themselves in danger too often." Ellie said to Manny. She then turned to Max, "That might be the same reason why you might be the only human-turned Pokemon left on the planet. Maybe you should run away more." She suggested to both Manny and Max.

There was a slight pause before Max said something sarcastically. "Right. Good point, Ellie." "Thanks for the advice." Manny added sarcastically.

"Happy to help." Ellie replied. Her brothers climbed up her back to continue playing.

Once the trio were out of their hearing range, Manny and Max let out their irritation and annoyance by what Ellie said to them.

"Can you believe her?" Manny asked the Pikachu. " _Bravery is just dumb. Maybe you should run away more._ " Manny mocked Ellie's words with a high pitched girly voice.

Max agreed with his male mammoth friend. "Put ourselves in danger too often, do we? It's not like we had much of a choice to begin with! That's what being in the Pride Team is all about! Saving those in trouble and go on adventures around the world!"

"She's infuriating, and stubborn and narrow-minded." Manny added, continuing with his own rant.

Hearing his friend, Sid gave Manny a knowing smirk since he sorta found out what Manny REALLY thinks of Ellie. "Ooh. You like her."

"I do not!" Manny snapped childishly. He then began to walk back on the trail. Max and other other Pride Team members quietly.

"Oh, don't worry. Your secret's safe with me." Sid just replied with a smirk. Then he noticed Diego beginning to follow the others. "Oh, and so is yours."

"What secret?" Diego asked in annoyance. He looked over his shoulder at the sloth.

"You know, the one where you can't swim." Sid answered the question.

Diego tried to avoid some melting patches in front of him as he tried to deny what Sid was saying. "That's ridiculous." He stopped when Sid walked on the puddles on purpose. "Fine. But we're living in a melting world, buddy. You're gonna have to face your fear sooner or later." Sid then scampered off to join the others, leaving Diego to his own thoughts.

Kate walked to next to a grumbling Max. "I thought you were pretty amazing back there." Kate commented. She was trying to make her friend feel better.

It worked and Max began to smile and blush a little. "R-Really? Oh, it was nothing. I couldn't have done that without Simba and Manny's help." He was being kinda bashful right now.

Kate giggled at his expression. "Unlike a possum, I think bravery is really cool. And to be honest, I think you're a great leader." What she said made Max pause in his steps just as Kate ran off to walk with CatDog. The Togetic began to have a little bit of fun with her brothers.

Max sighed as he smiled at Kate. Riolu walked over and thought now would be a good time to apologize for what he said earlier. "Uh, Max? Listen, I'm REALLY sorry about what I said back there. I wasn't right for me to say anything, and the last thing I want to do is upset my best friend in the entire planet. I know it might be a while for you to forgive me, but I..."

"Don't worry about it, Riolu. Apology accepted." Max cut Riolu off with the smile still on his face.

To say that Riolu was surprised would be an understatement. He didn't expect Max to forgive him THIS quickly. He said that his best friend might be the only human-turned Pokemon on the planet, for Arceus' sake! "Are you sure?"

Max nodded ad patted Riolu on the back. "Yeah. I could never stay mad at my best pal. We should keep moving." As he walked off, he never took his eyes off of Kate.

Riolu glanced at what his best friend was looking at, then he smiled when he saw it was Kate. "Oh." He then happily joined up with the others to get back on the road.

* * *

 **Kids, don't ever call Pumbaa a pig like Snorlax just did. Somebody always gets hurt. So, after their encounter with the Outsiders, Cretaceous, and Maelstrom, the group is now ready to continue their adventure to the end of the valley! You'll be able to see where Sneasel, Wynaut, and Snorlax land in the next chapter! Until then, see ya later!**


	7. Bonding

**Here in this chapter, you'll see where exactly Sneasel, Whynaut, and Snorlax have landed after their run-in with Pumbaa! Also, the team tries to get along with Ellie and her possum brothers again! Have fun!**

* * *

Still flying in the sky after being smacked by Pumbaa, Sneasel, Wynaut, and Snorlax stopped screaming and were waiting to finally land in silence. But then, one of the three Outsiders decided to break the silence.

"Gotta say, that warthog sure has some strength to hit us so hard that we're still in the air." Snorlax mentioned.

"Calling that guy a pig can make him do unthinkable things. Just ask our hyena friends back in our time, they'll vouch." Wynaut said.

Sneasel shuddered a bit. "I can still feel the pain on the day those Pride Bozos tried to take back that lion's kingdom." He then looked down and saw that they were getting closer to the ground and the water. That made him smile a little. "Well, at least we're finally gonna land soon."

"Thank goodness." Wynaut sighed in relief.

"But what are we gonna land in? The ground, water, or a soft pile of snow?" Snorlax asked.

While the Outsiders were still falling, Scrat was on an ice slide to try and get his acorn again. He crouched down on his front to get ready to launch himself down the slide to get his prize.

Scrat counted down in his head before he launched himself as fast as his arms could do to get him sliding on the curvy slide. He went flying over to his prize, and once he was close enough, he grabbed the acorn in his hands and happily hugged it to him. His eyes were closed, so he didn't see that the three Outsiders were now next to him as they splashed into the water.

Underwater, Wynaut was still able to gurgle out an answer for Snorlax. "Looks like we're in the water again, Snorlax."

Scrat opened his eyes to see that he now had a different problem. Noticing that he wasn't alone, Scrat tapped the nearest Pokemon next to him, which was Sneasel.

"What are you looking at?" Sneasel asked. Scrat just pointed his finger ahead of him. When the Outsiders looked in the direction of Scrat's finger, they saw that they were surrounded by a school of piranhas who opened their jaws in unison to attack the four intruders in their water and also have a free meal.

"Uh-oh." Snorlax gurgled.

Scrat, Sneasel, Wynaut, and Snorlax screamed as they quickly surfaced and tried to get away from the snapping piranhas.

"Get 'em off me! Get 'em off me!" Sneasel screamed. A couple of piranhas were literally on his tail.

The four of them were still dodging the carnivorous fish, even as they landed on a solid bunch of ice connected to dry land. Then, there was a pause when a piranha chomped on Scrat's hand...the one he was holding the acorn with.

With a sudden rise in inner power, Scrat narrowed his eyes and grabbed a jumping piranha by its tail fin. The Outsiders and the fish that had the acorn widened their eyes. "Whats going on now?" Wynaut asked.

"Aaaaaah!" Scrat gave out a battle cry before twirling the piranha in his hand. Before any of the three Outsiders knew it, Scrat was punching, kicking, dodging, and smacking the rest of the piranhas that came their way.

"Wow. He's got some moves!" Wynaut commented.

"I don't know who's scarier, the piranhas or that squirrel." Snorlax wondered.

Sneasel then noticed one piranha trying to escape. "Hey, buddy. I think you missed one." He pointed it out to Scrat. The saber-tooth squirrel wasn't gonna let that happen.

With a yell, Scrat jumped and kicked it downward, and out of the fish came his acorn. He held it up in his right hand, quite pleased with himself.

Suddenly an idea came to Sneasel. "Hey, what do you say we sick this squirrel on the Pride Team? They'll never see it coming." He smirked as he explained.

"But, that warthog knocked us away from them, and Cretaceous and Maelstrom. We don't even know how far we are from them." Snorlax shrugged.

Wynaut noticed something behind him. "Uh, I think I know how far." He pointed to what was behind them. They looked and saw the dam that was still slowly getting weaker.

Snorlax blinked a couple of times. "Wow, that warthog really has some strength to blast us right back where we started."

Sneasel looked upset. "Great! Back where we started ever since we came here!" Then he smiled just as Scrat was about to walk away. "Well, if we swim as fast as we can with this squirrel, we can easily help Cretaceous and Maelstrom finish off the Pride Team!"

Just then, something swooped down and snatched the acorn from Scrat. The four of them looked and saw that it was a female condor who took it. Now the condor was flying up to her nest, which was on a higher ice tower.

Seeing this, Scrat twitched his eye and groaned in dismay.

"Uh, do you think this plan involves getting the condor to help us?" Wynaut asked after a moment of silence.

Sneasel blinked, "I didn't think about that." Then he suddenly smirked again, "But, that is a GREAT idea!"

Looks like the Outsiders will be sticking with Scrat for a while.

* * *

With the group back further on dry land, they were passing a hill on another hill leading to the ground below, as well as a pond nearby.

However, Crash and Eddie were still playing around. They were pushing a log up to the top of the hill to roll all the way down. "Almost...there!" Crash said once they got it in place. "Okay, ready Eddie?" He asked his brother in excitement.

"Set. Let's roll!" Eddie answered. They pushed the log and now it was rolling down the hill with Crash on the side of it. "Wait for me!" Eddie cried out before he landed on top of the log.

Eddie tried to keep his balance on top of it, but he ended up getting tangled in the log and began rolling with it. Inside, Crash was repeatedly rolled. They passed by the Pride Team who stopped walking to find out what was going on now. They were surprised to see Ellie happily rolling on her own log. "Whoo hoo!" The female mammoth happily cheered.

The possums crashed against a dead tree and came to a stop, but their mammoth sister rolled over it and was still rolling on her log. "No breaks, gotta roll. Meet you at the other end." She called to the others. She was now further ahead of them.

"Sid, are you sure she's the girl for Manny?" Simba asked the sloth with a raised eyebrow. After seeing what Ellie does and after hearing about Manny in the past, the king of Pride Rock was kinda doubtful.

Sid just shrugged at the lion's question. "Oh yeah, she's tons of fun and Manny's no fun at all. She completes him."

"I don't know." Riolu then noticed they were missing someone. "Hey, wait a minute! Where are Kate and CatDog?"

They heard Cat's scream and turned to the hill next to them. CatDog was rolling on their own log down the hill. Even though he was screaming, Cat was still holding on to his laughing sister's legs. The only ones enjoying that ride were Dog and Kate.

"We'll be with Ellie! We'll meet you guys at the other end as well!" Kate called to the others. "High-ho-digety!" Dog cheered. "NO-ho-digety!" Cat argued.

Max watched them go with a smile. Riolu then casually walked over. "I'm noticing it." Riolu whispered to his best friend in a sing-song tone.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Max asked in confusion.

Riolu showed a knowing smirk. "You like Kate, don't you, Max?"

Blushing heavily, the Pikachu tried to deny it. "WHAT!? Me like Kate? No way! Well...only as a friend and nothing more!"

Riolu saw through that, however. "Uh-huh, sure. Keep telling yourself that, buddy."

Max turned his head away from his partner without another word.

Crash and Eddie, completely dizzy from the log roll, wobbled a little from the log and tried to give each other a high-five. They missed and Eddie landed on his front.

Crash shook his head and he thought of a different stunt to do. "Hey, hey Manny!" He bounced off his brother's head and climbed up the tree to make a request to the male mammoth. "Can you pull back the tree and shoot me into the pond?"

"No." Manny firmly responded, walking past the tree.

"Oh, come on!" Crash whined.

Pumbaa rushed over to walk next to Manny. "Manny, you'll never impress Ellie with an attitude like that."

"I don't want to impress her." Manny grumbled in annoyance.

"Oh. Then why are you trying really hard to convince her that she's a mammoth?" Pumbaa asked curiously.

"Because that's what she is! I don't care if she thinks she's a possum. You can't be two things." Manny answered.

"Oh, Manfred, that's where you're wrong. There's the bullfrog, the chicken hawk, and the turtledove." Pumbaa replied knowingly.

"He's never gonna let up on you. It'll be easier on all of us if you just go with it." Diego said knowingly. Timon and Sid nodded in agreement as they walked by. Timon was actually walking and not on someone's back for once.

Riolu, Max, and Simba looked kinda worried though. Manny, on the other hand, groaned in defeat and walked over to the possums. Crash was using his tail as a swing while Eddie pushed him.

"So uh, what do you want me to do?" Manny asked Crash. Crash stopped swinging and hopped back on the branch. "Pull back the tree and shoot me into the pond."

"I don't know..." Manny raised an eyebrow. This just had 'bad idea' written all over it...somehow.

Crash leaned against the branch and examined his nails. "Well, if you're too lame to do it, we can get Ellie."

"No, no, no. No, I can do it. I can do it." Manny then used his trunk to pull the tree back.

"I'm getting a bad feeling about this." Simba whispered to Max and Riolu. "You're not the only one." Riolu whispered back.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on, come on." Crash coached Manny.

Max quickly went over to the tree. "Uh, Crash? Have you done something like this before?" Max asked, sounding worried.

Crash smirked, "Ha! Only a million times." He went back to coaching Manny. "Farther, farther, farther." He then saw that Manny placed his foot on the tip. "Perfect. FIRE!" Manny let the tree go as it snapped back into place. Eddie smiled at first once Crash was launched, but then he whimpered a bit when he saw some of his brother's fur shaped like him before scattering all over.

"Crash?" Riolu saw the possum flying.

"Yeah! I can flyyyyyy!" Crash cheered. Ellie, Kate, and CatDog saw Crash flying by and they were wondering what made him fly like this.

" ** _~I believe I can flyyy~_** " Crash was singing just before he smacked against another tree without looking. He moaned as he fell off and landed on his back, now unconscious.

Eddie saw what happened and he screamed in horror, then he rushed over to see if his brother was okay. "Crash!"

"Oh no!" Simba shared a worried glance with Max, Riolu, and Manny. They then rushed off to check on the down possum.

Eddie made it to a moaning and unconscious Crash. "Crash! Crash! Crash, are you okay?"

Ellie rushed over with Kate and CatDog by her side. "What happened?" Ellie asked in concern.

"Manny shot him out of a tree." Eddie replied while holding Crash close.

Once the rest of the group finally arrived, Ellie turned to Manny. "What's wrong with you!?"

"He said he could do it." Manny defended himself.

"And you listened to him." Ellie argued.

Max winced when he saw the body mark Crash left on the tree. "Boy, that's gotta hurt."

"Crash! Whatever you do, don't go into the light!" Eddie shook his brothers while the others watched.

Manny felt guilty and wanted to fix this. "Can I help in any way here?"

"You've done enough." Ellie glared at Manny, heartbroken and thinking that she might've lost a brother today.

Timon turned away from the possums to give Pumbaa and Diego a dull look. "Oh, great suggestion, guys." He said sarcastically.

"Sorry." Pumbaa apologized. Diego even cringed a little with guilt.

Then they sadly turned to see Eddie pretty sad about this. "Crash! Crash, don't leave me! Who's gonna watch my back? Who's gonna be my wingman of mayhem?" He dropped and brother and then got to his knees in despair. "Who's gonna roll in the dung patch with me?" He sobbed a little.

"Dung patch?" Crash suddenly asked in excitement. Everyone was surprised to see Crash recovering. With Eddie's help, Crash was on his feet again. "Wait, my legs. I can stand!"

"He can stand!" Eddie cheered.

"I can run!" Crash was running in place, recovering right away.

"He can run! It's a miracle!" Eddie and Crash were happily hugging each other.

"Hallelujah!" Ellie cheered for her brothers who happily ran ahead. She began to laugh, but she stopped when she saw that the others were giving her blank, stunned, and confused faces. "What can I say? They're boys. They make my like a little adventure." She told them sheepishly.

Kate nodded in understanding. "I can relate. CatDog can make my own life an adventure too." CatDog looked at her with only Cat raising an eyebrow.

Knowing that this was Crash's fault to begin with, Ellie marched over to her brothers. "You guys are so DEAD! Thanks for embarrassing me!"

Max and the group just watched and cringed in sympathy when they saw Ellie smacking her brothers like a mother dealing with her troublemaking kids.

Crash and Eddie were crying out in pain. "Ow! Owowowow! Not the face!"

"I'm glad I'm not them." Timon muttered with a scared expression on his face. In fact, most of them had scared expressions on their faces. Kate, however, just smiled and chuckled a little with her eyes closed. She understands what it's like to look after two brothers, even if those two brothers shared the same body.

* * *

Later in the early, the Pride Team, the herd, Ellie, Crash, and Eddie were walking up another hill, moving away any logs that were in the way. Sid tried to help, but he broke off a small twig and land on his back clumsily.

As he picked up another log, Manny looked over at Ellie. The female mammoth has cooled off by now and was playing around with Crash and Eddie.

Simba walked over with Timon and Pumbaa. "She's really not that bad." Simba told Manny.

When Manny turned his head, Simba and Pumbaa ducked their heads to avoid getting hit by the log. Timon, however, got hit in the face and landed on his back off of Pumbaa. "Oh!"

"A bit strange, and confused on who she really is, but, she seems nice." Simba added.

"So?" Manny asked, turning his head. Simba and Pumbaa ducked their heads. Timon got on Pumbaa's back again, shaking off the pain, only for the log to hit him in the back of the head. "Ow!" Timon grunted and landed on Pumbaa's snout.

"So, is there anything stopping you?" Pumbaa asked in confusion.

Manny threw the log away, then he sadly gave the warthog an answer after a little silence. "My family."

Max and the others paused. Their hearts went out to the poor mammoth. Max felt bad for Manny, but he also felt sad for himself. He's still upset that he might be the only human-turned Pokemon in the world and has never come close to finding another Pokemon who was once a human being.

Sid poked through another log Manny picked up. "You can have it again, you know." the sloth pointed out to Manny.

"Sid, this is Manny's choice. I can understand his fear, I'm still upset with the fact that I might be the only human-turned Pokemon in the world and will NEVER find anyone like me." Max pointed out. He didn't see the determined/serious look Kate was giving him.

Sid cried out while Manny held the log up high. "Okay, okay, but, but, but think about it, Max. If Manny lets this chance go, he's letting his whole species go, and that's just...huh, that's just...selfish! Just like how if you give up, you'll just be a true loner in a crowd of Pokemon!"

Manny and Max gave Sid hard glares before the mammoth tossed Sid and the log away. Sid was screaming before he crashed to the ground. His bottom half was sticking out of the log.

"I think I'm starting to get through to him." Sid said happily about Manny. Riolu, Simba, Timon, Pumbaa, CatDog, and Diego walked by with amused smirks, smiles in Pumbaa and Dog's case.

Ellie, Crash, and Eddie were playing chase with Ellie chasing after her brothers. She tried to crawl underneath a fallen tree to catch them, but had no luck. "Wait, wait! I got you!" Ellie missed.

"Slowpoke!" Crash teased. He and Eddie laughed and ran on ahead.

Ellie tried to move, but she found herself to be stuck. She slumped and puffed in frustration.

Manny, Max, and Kate went to her. "Ellie? Do you need some help?" Kate asked.

"No, no. Just uh, catching my breath." Ellie lied. She tried to make it look like nothing was wrong.

Max raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "You're stuck, aren't you?"

"I am not." Ellie replied, stubbornly.

Manny just shrugged. "All right, then, let's go." He and Max began to walk away while Kate stayed with Ellie.

"I can't." Ellie called in defeat. "I'm stuck."

Manny and Max walked back over. Manny lifted the log. "Don't you think picking them up like this would be easier?" Manny asked after he tossed the log aside.

But then, they saw that the log landed and blew away some loose leaves hanging from two trees next to them. They saw that it looked like a path leading to another clearing in the woods.

For some reason Ellie walked into the pathway to the woods, confusing the other three.

"Ellie?" Manny asked. He followed her into the woods. Max and Kate silently looked at each other in confusion.

"What's with her?" Max asked. He then decided to go after the mammoths. "We should follow them."

Kate, however, saw this as a chance for Manny and Ellie to be alone together. She also looked like it was time to tell Max something. "Max, wait." She held Max's arm to stop him. He looked at the Togetic in confusion. "We should let them have a moment alone. ...Besides, there's something I need to tell you. So, you think we can talk...just the two of us?" Kate looked nervous.

Blinking in confusion with Kate's attitude, Max gently smiled and nodded. "Sure, Kate. Lead the way." Kate smiled and took a different path with Max following her.

Riolu, Sid, Diego, Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa turned their heads to see their friends walking off. Manny and Ellie down one path, Max and Kate down another. The six of them smiled and decided to let their friends have their moments. Crash and Eddie were still playing with each other while Cat decided to have a little fun with Dog, they didn't notice what was going on.

* * *

As she kept walking down the woods with Manny following her, Ellie kept thinking that this place looked familiar to her.

"I know this place." Ellie muttered. When she looked at a nearby branch, she quickly thought back to that branch being covered in ice and snow and also the trumpet sound of a mammoth.

She then noticed a familiar looking tree ahead of her on the edge of a cliff. An image of that tree covered in ice and snow quickly played in her head.

Then, Ellie's eyes widened when a memory from long ago came to her.

* * *

 _Flashback:_

 _A younger Ellie was wandering around, cold and lost during the Ice Age._

 _She tried to call out for help with her trunk, but she got no response._

 _Scared and searching for her mother, Ellie noticed something up ahead. Since it was mammoth shaped, Ellie quickly went over to see it it was her mother._

 _It wasn't, it's just a tree covered in snow that made her think it was a mammoth._

 _Since it was pretty cold, the only thing Ellie could do was close her eyes and curl up against the tree in sadness._

 _Then a noise got her attention. Ellie opened her eyes to see a female possum hanging on a branch by her tail, smiling warmly at the poor young mammoth who blinked in confusion._

 _From behind the female possum, two smaller possums peaked from behind their mother. They glanced at the mammoth in confusion and curiosity._

 _Ellie stood up and smiled back at the possums._

 _Flashback End:_

* * *

As soon as the memory faded, Ellie blinked in surprise. She unknowingly walked under the same tree the mother possum found her.

Turning around, she saw Manny standing there. The male mammoth somehow found out that Ellie finally figured out who she REALLY is.

As she approached Manny, Ellie saw the mammoth footprints were in between them. Like Manny showed her earlier, she placed her front foot on one of the prints and she smiled when she saw that it fit perfectly. Manny smiled as well.

Now the two mammoths were walking side-by-side.

"You know, deep down, I knew I was different." Ellie sighed. "I was little bigger than the other possum kids." Manny stopped and gave her a confused look, so she rolled her eyes and corrected herself. "Okay, a lot bigger." Manny just smiled at that. Then Ellie realized something else. "Oh! Now I understand why the possum boys didn't find me appealing."

"That's too bad, because as far as mammoths go, you're...uh..." Manny began to trail off, feeling embarrassed all of a sudden. "You know."

"What?" Ellie was curious.

"Well, dah, well...oh...attractive." Manny said sheepishly, then he began to walk away.

"Really?" Ellie sounded surprised.

"Sure." Manny answered.

"What about me is attractive?" Ellie asked. That Manny stop.

"Huh? Wha-oh, well...I-I dunno. Uh, well, there's your...uh, butt?" Manny said awkwardly.

Ellie looked at her butt. "What about it?" She asked suspiciously.

"It's...big?" Manny replied, cringing as he did.

At first, she looked suspicious, but then Ellie smiled after a pause. "Oh, you're just saying that."

Hearing that made Manny relax as he continued. "No, no, no, I mean it. It's huge. Biggest darn butt I've ever seen."

"Oh, that is very sweet." Ellie was touched by what Manny told her. "What a crazy day. This morning I woke up a possum, and now...I'm a mammoth."

Manny smiled at her while hearing that.

* * *

Back at the dam, it was melting and spewing out more water and also releasing more ice chunks that fell off and crashed down below.

The three Outsiders and Scrat were hopping and climbing towards the condor's nest, dodging the ice chunks as they did.

"Okay, just remembered what we talked about, buddy. You let me and my friends talk to that condor, and that acorn is all yours." Sneasel told Scrat.

Scrat smiled and nodded happily. Then they swung on a loose stick to get to the big nest.

"Hey, I don't see any condor here." Snorlax said. They looked around and saw that it was empty, except for an egg and the acorn.

Not seeing the condor anywhere, Sneasel sighed in annoyance. "Okay, your prize is over there, bushy tail. You know what to do." Scrat happily ran over and held his prize close.

Then everyone heard a cracking sound. Scrat wondered if it was his acorn, but another crack was heard behind him. Everyone turned to the egg, just as the top opened up to reveal a baby male condor.

"...I guess the condor left to find something for the little one." Wynaut guessed. The baby condor looked at the acorn Scrat was holding.

Scrat held it close to him, glaring at the baby condor. As he moved the acorn a bit, the baby condor kept his eyes on it. Screaming, Scrat ran away. But, with the baby being bigger than him, he easily caught up and chomped on Scrat's tail. That made Scrat scream in pain and release his grip on the acorn.

The baby caught the acorn in his beak and stomped on Scrat. This was entertaining to Sneasel. "That was a good one."

"That squirrel must be pretty hurt after that." Snorlax said. Scrat shook off the pain and jumped after the baby to get his nut. That made the two of them fall over with the acorn free from the baby's beak.

"Guys, we should probably get back to finding the adult condor." Wynaut suggested to Snorlax and Sneasel.

"What? And miss this?" Sneasel motioned his arm to Scrat and the baby condor having a tug-o-war match for the acorn. "I've never enjoyed myself more! This is even better than seeing Banzai and Ed fighting after we got our butts kicked by Mufasa!"

Scrat and the baby pulled so hard, the acorn was launched into the air. Scrat ran to catch it, but the baby condor stopped him with his foot before he swallowed the acorn.

Sneasel was even cheering for the baby. "Yeah! Awesome move, kiddo!"

Not one to give up, Scrat scurried up, yanked the beak open and pulled the acorn out of the kid. But that made the kid angry. He tried to chomp down the scurrying Scrat. And while the condor chased Scrat, Sneasel was laughing pretty hard. There was a pause when it looked like Scrat got his head bit off.

The Outsiders gulped at that, but it turns out Scrat hid his head in his body and had to pull it out. Scrat glared as he looked around for the little brat.

"Okay, that was good and all, but we should find that mother condor." Snorlax said. Then a shadow loomed over Scrat. Wynaut saw who the shadow belonged to. "Uh, guys? The momma's back."

They heard and looked up, even Scrat and his eyes widened and he let his acorn drop. The mother condor stood on the edge of the nest, looking down at the Outsiders and Scrat since she knew they were causing her baby trouble. The baby smiled, knowing his momma came to the rescue.

Scrat tried to make the condor think he's one of them pathetically. "Peep?"

Sneasel walked over next to Scrat to speak to the mother condor. "Allow me." He then turned his attention to the condor while Wynaut and Snorlax were behind him. "Evening, ma'am. Name's Sneasel and I'd like to ask you for a little help in ridding me and my friends of a little problem, not meaning the nut ball next to me. Just fly me up in the sky and I'll point them out to you. In return, we'll help bring all the food for you and your kid. What do you say?"

The mother just narrowed her eyes at the Outsiders and Scrat.

Next thing the four of them knew, the Outsiders were kicked off to the side and Scrat was pushed through the nest. All four of them were screaming as they fell down to the water below them. The baby condor even waved his wing goodbye at Scrat.

The Outsiders hit the water with a splash. They quickly swam over to a floating piece of ice.

"Okay, that didn't go well." Wynaut said.

"I can see where I went wrong. I just didn't give her enough details on what I was offering. And because of that, she gave us the boot off her nest." Sneasel was still determined to get the condor to help.

"Maybe we should just find a way to get back to Cretaceous and Maelstrom to help us deal with the Pride Team." Snorlax suggested.

"Those two useless Magikarps? Forget it! We had them deal with those bozos on the thin, and they couldn't dispose of them!" Sneasel looked up at the nest again. "I might have failed to get the condor to listen to me, but that's not gonna happen twice."

However, after the Outsiders got to the nest two minutes later...

"It happened twice! IT HAPPENED TWICE!" Sneasel screamed. He, Wynaut, and Snorlax were kicked out of the nest by the mother condor and hit the water once again.

* * *

Continuing on the trail at night just wasn't such a good idea, so the Pride Team decided to camp out for the night. Even Crash and Eddie agreed to get some sleep before getting back on the road. Max, Kate, Manny, and Ellie have yet to return to Riolu and the others.

Having learned how to make fire, Sid was testing rocks to make a campfire. He frowned when one of the two rocks he picked up was too flat, so he threw it away before he heard rustling behind him.

Looking over, he saw nothing but bushes. Shrugging to himself, he found another rock and smiled when he saw a spark after smacking the rocks in his hands together.

More rustling was heard, making Sid look back at the bushes and saw that they were still.

He then saw Diego, Riolu, CatDog, Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa walking by to find spots to sleep for the night.

"Boy, Manny sure took a big leap with Ellie today." Sid commented with a smirk.

"Yeah, he sure did. Just like how Simba and Max helped Manny fight one of those dangerous fishes." Dog happily agreed.

"Yep. All three of them stood on the shore of uncertainty and dove right in." Sid then slid over to Simba and Diego. "Splash. Kinda brave, huh? The way you, Max, and Manny faced your fears." Sid took a sideways glance at Diego while he said that to Simba.

Simba just shrugged. "Well, I was just doing what I could to help protect the others."

"Diego, what do you think?" Pumbaa asked the tiger.

"I wouldn't know. Sabers don't feel fear." Diego replied. That made the others look at him with sweat drops.

"Oh, come on. All animals and all Pokemon feel fear. It's what separates us from, say, rocks. Rocks have no fear." Sid tossed a rock into a puddle behind him. "And they sink."

"Just what are you getting at, Sid?" Cat asked skeptically.

"It may surprise you guys to know that I, too, have experienced fear." Sid proudly informed.

"Oh really?" Riolu mockingly said. He and the others held mock surprised looks/deadpan looks. For Dog and Pumbaa, it was real surprise.

"Oh, yeah. Yes, as impossible as it seems, the sloth has natural enemies that would like to harm or otherwise 'kill' us." Sid put air quotes for the word, kill.

"I wonder why?" Diego asked sarcastically.

"Well, jealousy, mostly." Sid replied.

"I highly doubt that. It's almost like saying most animals try to eat meerkats like me because they're jealous of us." Timon muttered to himself.

Not hearing the meerkat, Sid concluded what he was trying to say. "But the point is that fear is natural."

Sid leaned back a bit when Diego leaned forward with a terrifying sneer. "Fear is for prey." He then turned to walk away. Simba may be a predator but even he realizes that all living creatures experience fear, so he just gave Diego a look of disagreement.

"Well, then, you're letting the water make you its prey." Sid then zoomed over a tree and over a bush behind Riolu. "Just jump in and trust your instincts." He dived into the bush to pretend he's swimming in water. "You know, most animals and Pokemon can swim as babies."

He was now on a log and pretending to be a predator stalking prey. "And for a tiger, it's like crawling on your belly to stalk helpless prey." He disappeared into the trees.

Sid suddenly appeared to the group's right, making them jump a little. Sid was using vines to keep him a little off the ground. "But faster, OK? Now, claw, kick, claw, kick. I'm stalking the prey. Claw, kick. Now, I look back over my shoulder to see if I'm being followed. And I'm breathing." The more Sid was faux swimming, the more annoyed the others, minus Dog and Pumbaa, were becoming. "And I'm stalking and I'm stalking and I'm...Ah!" Sid yelped when Cat used his claws to cut the vines.

Sid fell on his back on the ground in front of the others. "...I'm falling." He weakly finished.

"Correction, Sid. You're sinking. Kinda like a rock." Cat replied. The others walked away while Sid just laid there, groaning.

* * *

Meanwhile, Max and Kate were out in an open field with plenty of grass and with plenty of stars in the sky.

"Wow. Those stars looks amazing, don't you think?" Kate asked Max.

Max looked up at the stars himself. "They do look astounding. Seeing those stars makes me think back to what Simba's father, Mufasa said about them."

"Really? What did he say?" Kate asked, interested.

"Back when he was still alive, Mufasa said that the great kings of the past are up there watching over us. Whenever we're alone, those kings will always be there to guide us." Max then turned his head from the stars and to Kate. "Ever since then, I've felt as if those same kings have been watching over me, Riolu, Simba, and everyone else in the Pride Team, acting like our spirit guides."

Max then decided to ask Kate something. "Say, Kate. You said you wanted to tell me something?"

Kate looked serious as she turned from the stars to Max. "I did say that. ...Max? Remember what I said about you meeting another Pokemon that was once a human before?"

Max nodded. "You did say that."

"Well...you're looking at her, right in front of you." Kate finally revealed. That shocked Max pretty good.

"Wha...!? Kate, you were a human before?" Max asked.

Kate nodded, "Like you, I got turned into a Pokemon a long time ago. I was an adventurous little human girl when it happened. One night, I was looking up at the stars like what we're doing now. Then, I saw this unique shooting star out there, so I closed my eyes and made a wish on it."

"What wish was that?" Max asked.

Kate kinda hesitated to answer, but she decided to answer anyway. "I...I-I wished I could be able to understand Pokemon a lot more."

"Really? You're a girl that seems to love Pokemon and adventures." Max commented.

Kate smiled and nodded, "More than anything." Her smile faded as she continued. "But, the next day...I guess my wish was granted in a way. I woke up one day as a Togetic, lost...and alone."

Max felt real sad for his friend, but then something else came to him. "What about CatDog? How did you meet them?"

"I was lost in that world, and I was still not used to my wings at the time I stumbled upon where CatDog lived, Nearburg." Kate answered. "Maybe I was still tired from that sleep I had on that fateful day, or maybe I wasn't thinking clearly because I haven't eaten anything for a couple of days after that day, but I smacked my face against the front door of CatDog's house."

* * *

 _Flashback:_

 _CatDog were watching TV on the couch when they heard something smack against their door. They yelped when they heard that._

 _Cat carefully walked over to the front door to find out what it was. When he opened the door, he was surprised to see a bruised Togetic, Kate, lying in front of the house._

"When I came to, I've found myself in their living room with bandages around me and with a meal right in front of me." Kate explained.

 _Kate was enjoying some food while watching TV, but then she looked over at CatDog._

"At first, I was surprised to see a cat and a dog attached to each other, but they explained what happened to me. In return, I've told them about me being a human once."

 _After Kate explained her situation, CatDog looked at each other skeptically._

"Even so, Dog was really kind and suggested I stay with them. Cat, however, was kinda skeptical about it. But, after a while, he kinda warmed up to the idea." Kate added.

 _Images of Kate playing with CatDog appeared, as well as Kate scolding Winslow for picking on them and even multiple images of Kate using her powers to protect CatDog from the Greaser Dogs: Cliff, Shriek, and Lube._

 _One last image showed Kate and CatDog hugging each other._

 _Flashback End:_

* * *

"Ever since, I've been living with them as their adopted sister." Kate finished her explanation to Max.

The Pikachu was surprised with what Kate went through during her first days as a Togetic. "Kate...Do you ever want to be a human again?"

Kate smiled and looked up at the stars. "I did once, but I'm really happy living with CatDog as a Togetic. I've learned that it's kinda fun to fly around with my wings." She then sighed a little, "But, I have to admit, it felt kinda lonely being an only human-turned Pokemon around the area before I met you."

Max nodded a couple of times. "I understand the feeling. When I was a human, I was tasked with defeating an unusual enemy with a Pokemon named Mew."

"What enemy?" Kate asked.

"Dark Matter. An enemy created from negative feelings in Pokemon and something that was able to turn Pokemon, legendary, mythical, or otherwise, into stone. I was tasked to bring Dark Matter down before the Tree of Life could be destroyed by the sun." Max explained. He looked down as he continued. "As a human, I've failed. But a long story involved me turning into a Pikachu and having a second chance to stop Dark Matter with Riolu."

"Riolu? You mean your partner and best friend?" Kate asked.

Max nodded. "Neither one of us knew it until some time after Dark Matter was defeated, but it turns out Riolu was once a reincarnation of Mew." That shocked Kate a bit.

"I thought I was gonna return to the human world once Dark Matter was gone...but I was wrong, Riolu was the one that disappeared." Max said sadly.

Kate was confused. "Huh? But I've seen Riolu around. How could he have disappeared when he's still here with you?"

"That's because I went through a lot to bring him back. I met up with another Mew, traveled a little with him, but then I was able to get Riolu back, thanks to Mew's help...thanks to the help of all of my friends from the Expedition Society." Max finished explaining.

"Wow, Riolu sure is lucky to have you for a friend, Max." Kate said with a smile.

"Well, Riolu's been there for me from the very beginning. He's like my best friend...my brother. We've always been a team. He finds a way to remind me that I'm not alone in this world." Max looked up at the sky and imagined Riolu.

Kate then suddenly took a hold of Max's paw in comfort. "I guess we're more alike than we both think."

Surprised at first, Max smiled and held Kate's hand back. "I guess you're right. All the more reason for us to stay together...as Pride Team members."

The two human-turned Pokemon said nothing else. They just sat there and looked up at the stars while holding their hands.

* * *

 **Finally finished with this chapter! The stuff that Max was to Kate about, involving Riolu, happened in the game Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon if any of you were curious. Sorry it took so long to complete, see you in the next chapter!**


	8. Balancing & Fire King?

**Right here, the Pride Team gets just a little closer to the end of the valley. Trouble is they have to deal with a little balance and also a little something in store for Sid. Have fun!**

* * *

Back with the mammoths, Manny and Ellie were still walking down their path to catch up with the others. Ellie looked pretty excited about realizing she's a mammoth and not a possum like her brothers.

"Hey, do we do any special tricks, like roll over, or do we just throw our weight around?" After she asked, Ellie accidentally knocked against Manny. "Whoops! Sorry. I don't know my own strength yet."

Even though he was happy for her, Manny decided to talk to Ellie about something important. "Ellie. You realize that now we have a chance to save our species?"

Curiosity quickly got to Ellie. "Really? How are we gonna do that?"

Manny tried to answer, but he hesitated as he did. "Well...you know..."

Ellie quickly caught on and she looked offended. "Oh uh-uh, did you just...? I'm not a mammoth for five minutes and you're hitting on me?" She began to walk on ahead in anger.

"I-I wasn't saying not right now, uh, in time. I was just saying...that it's our responsibility." Manny tried to explain.

"What!?" Ellie looked even more mad.

Manny realized that he messed up and tried to fix it. "A-Alright, that came out wrong! I... You're very pretty, but we just met..."

Ellie walked over and was now in Manny's face. "Responsibility? Just doing your duty, huh? Is that it? Ready to make the ultimate sacrifice to save your species?"

"Uh..." Manny was at a loss for words, so Ellie kept going. "Well I got some news for you, you're not saving the species tonight or any other night!"

Now done, Ellie marched on ahead, leaving Manny behind. The male mammoth couldn't believe what he just said.

* * *

Half an hour later, Max and Kate have already reunited with the Pride Team, Sid, and Diego. The ten of them were sitting around the fire Sid made by the time Manny joined them and they saw the guilty look on his face.

"So, how did it go?" Simba asked Manny about his time with Ellie.

"...Not bad." Manny answered sheepishly. Just then, an angry Ellie stormed by with Crash and Eddie on her back. Seeing her walk by made Manny groan in dismay as well as guilt.

Timon held a bug on a stick over the fire when Ellie stepped in a puddle to put the fire out. "Hey! I'm trying to roast a bug on a stick here!" Timon called to Ellie in annoyance. He was holding up the now soaked bug up.

Ignoring the meerkat, Ellie stopped and looked over her shoulder at the others. "Okay, let's go. We traveled with you all day, now you're coming with us at night." She angrily ordered.

"But, Ellie, we can't see at night." Max pointed out.

"Then enjoy the flood." Ellie replied furiously. She continued on in anger. Earlier, she must've told her brothers about what happened, because Crash and Eddie looked pretty mad themselves.

"I can't even look at him." Eddie angrily muttered in disgust.

Crash, however, looked over his shoulder at Manny. "Pervert!" Manny was shocked while Max and Simba were surprised. Crash made a motion with his fingers showing that he'll be watching Manny before he looked away again.

The others had no other choice but to follow Ellie, Crash, and Eddie in the dark of the night.

"Man, I don't know what you did, but you should probably apologize to her once she cools down." Riolu muttered to Manny as they followed Ellie.

* * *

As the Pride Team and the herd traveled through a canyon an hour later, the ground was covered up by some fog, and the only light they had to go with was the light of the moon above their heads. Even so, the only ones that had no problem seeing were Ellie, Crash, Eddie, and even Diego.

The possums were looking around the area carefully as did the others in the group. But since the fog on the ground was kinda thick, Cat was still able to smack his left hand against a dead tree stump. "AAAAHHH!" He screamed in agony after he did.

"Cat, are you okay?" Dog asked.

"Watch out, there's a stump." Crash warned, teasingly.

"Well, thanks so much for the warning." Cat sarcastically thanked with a glare aimed at Crash. "But I think the stump's not at that spot anymore!"

The twins were now on Ellie's tusks. Manny and Max were walking behind her while Kate flew a little off the ground next to Max. The three of them were trying to find a way to clean up the mess Manny unintentionally made in the first place.

"Uh, Ellie? Is everything okay? You look kinda...upset about something." Max said carefully.

"Crash, ask the Pikachu why he thinks that." Ellie replied in annoyance.

Crash got off Ellie's tusk and got on Manny's tusk. "She said she thinks Manny's a jerk, and to go away. And she also said that you should stay out of it, Lightning Tail." Crash replied to Max. He then went back to Ellie.

"She didn't say-Ow!" Manny unexpectedly hit his head on a rock above him.

Kate flew over next to Ellie. "Hey, you know what you need right now? A nice friendly girl talk. Just you and me." She happily suggested to try and cheer Ellie up.

Max happily agreed with it. "Great idea! You might be happier after a little time-Ow!" He unexpectedly hit his right foot on a rock. He hopped a little to ease his foot pain.

Ellie, however, didn't cheer up one bit. If anything, she was starting to lose her patience. "Tell them that I need a little personal space right now."

Even though they felt bad, Max, Kate, and Manny stopped when Crash and Eddie appeared in front of them, hanging upside down. Kate even stopped flying and landed on her feet between Manny and Max.

"She said go jump in a lake." Crash 'translated'.

"And possums rule." Eddie shared a fist bump with Crash before they landed on the ground to continue walking.

Max and Kate were now walking next to the possums. "You do realize that we can hear her, don't you?" Max asked in annoyance. Riolu caught up to the four of them.

"What do you want? A medal?" Crash sarcastically asked the Pikachu.

"Come on, can't we all just get along for the night?" Riolu asked Kate, Max, Crash, and Eddie. But then, all five of them suddenly fell and disappeared into the fog, screaming as they did when something cracked underneath them.

While they were shocked, and when CatDog ran over to check on their sister, the ground suddenly cracked and Manny and Ellie soon found themselves on a very unstable rock platform with the fog clearing up. CatDog screamed when they fell off to the side.

They've now realized that they were crossing a fragile rock bridge. Simba and Diego held on to the edge behind the mammoths tightly to avoid falling off.

Sid, Timon, and Pumbaa jumped up with Sid now hanging on to Diego's hind legs while Pumbaa held on to Simba's hind legs and Timon held on to Simba's tail.

CatDog got lucky and landed on a lower platform and the possums and Pokemon were on another low platform. All three platforms were spinning around like it was some sort of ride. They were up very high, and Simba looked down and saw that they were all in danger of falling to their deaths to the sharp rocks below.

"Everyone! Stop moving!" Simba called out to everyone. Manny stopped on one side and Ellie on another. The pillar finally stopped and everyone held their breath.

Diego sighed gratefully. "Thank you, Simba."

"...Ah-CHOO!" Dog suddenly let out a loud sneeze that made a rock under the top platform break and sending the pillar spinning slowly again. Sid, Timon, and Pumbaa lost their grip and briefly landed on the same platform CatDog was on. Timon landed on CatDog and Sid and Pumbaa were holding on to the edge to avoid falling. Dog held Sid's arms while Cat and Timon did the same for Pumbaa.

Then the top platform began to crack between the mammoths. "Manny! Ellie! Lock trunks!" Diego shouted. The two mammoths just shot each other dismayed looks. Ellie's looking more insulted.

"Now!" Diego shouted. With not much of a choice, the mammoths locked trunks to keep the top platform in one piece..

Simba then turned his head to the five on the bottom platform. "Max, Riolu, Kate, Crash, Eddie! Grab on to that ledge over there!" the lion nodded his head to the other side.

The possums and Pokemon looked over at the other side. "Right! Got it!" Max replied to Simba. "Ready, guys?" Riolu asked the terrified possums. The two of them looked down at the sharp rocks below and laughed nervously.

"Funny. Now what's your real plan?" Eddie sarcastically asked Simba. Crash shook his head and thought they were going to die.

"Let's just do it, okay?" Kate impatiently asked the possums.

Crash just hugged his brother. "Bye, Eddie."

Eddie hugged Crash in return and fear. "Bye, Crash."

Crash used one hand to wave to his and Eddie's sister. "Bye, Ellie."

"Go now!" Simba shouted. The possums and Pokemon did as they were told. Eddie and Riolu stretched out to grab the ledge. Crash held on to his brother's tail while Max and Kate held on to Riolu's legs.

"Um...I'm sorry, if what I said before offended you." Manny decided to apologize for earlier.

Max turned his head up to the top platform. "Manny, we're in the middle of a situation that could cost us our lives! This is no time to apologize for your stupid mistake!" The Pikachu pointed out in annoyance.

"What do you mean 'IF' it offended me?" Ellie loosened her grip by accident, that made them rotate again while Riolu and Eddie lost their grip. Crash, Max, and Kate were holding on to them tightly.

"Whoa!" Riolu yelped while hanging upside down with Eddie. "We got you!" Kate called to Riolu and Eddie.

"'That' it offended her! 'That' it offended her!" Crash corrected Manny in panic and frustration.

"Uh, I-I mean that! That it offended you!" Manny quickly corrected. He was able to pull Ellie closer while everyone struggled to hold still to stay alive.

"Okay, as long as no one says anything or start something else, maybe we can get out of this jam." Cat said. He and Timon were still holding on to Pumbaa while Dog was still helping Sid.

However, Manny opened his mouth to Ellie again. "You just overreacted, that's all."

"What!?" Ellie exclaimed in shock.

"Manny! Be quiet!" Timon groaned in annoyance.

Crash looked over his shoulder at Manny. "Take it back!"

"There are other lives at stake here!" Eddie added.

"Guys, can't we save this for another time?" Kate asked in panic.

"Hey! What's going on here?" Timon asked in frustration.

"What is going here?" Dog asked in confusion.

"Wait a minute, he's got a point!" Sid was taking Manny's side.

"He's got nothing!" Crash argued.

"It was a misunderstanding!" Sid shouted.

"It was insensitive!" Eddie shouted back.

"Maybe Ellie did overreact." Pumbaa turned to Riolu. "Riolu, you're with Manny, right?"

"Normally I would, but I just want us to get out of this mess already! All my blood's rushing to my head as we speak!" Riolu shouted. His proof was that his forehead was turning purple.

"Apologize!" Diego ordered Manny.

"Why me? She overreacted!" Manny cried out like a child.

"Just apologize!" Diego yelled.

"No!" Manny declined.

"Manny!" Simba warned.

"Okay, I'm sorry!" Ellie said to Manny.

"WHAT?" Everyone else asked. They were confused by the sudden apology from Ellie.

"He's right. I overreacted." Ellie sighed in realization.

"You mean you-" Manny was suddenly cut off.

"Not another word or I'll come up there and zap you so hard, you'll still be paralyzed even in the afterlife!" Max snapped in warning. Manny was giving the Pikachu a glare, but he kept quiet nonetheless.

Sid, Timon, Pumbaa, and CatDog were carefully crawling over to the edge of their platform and reaching for the other side. Problem is they yelped as they fell off the middle platform and landed safely on the other side and the pillar began to topple behind them...with their friends still on it!

"Uh-oh!" Sid realized his mistake.

Timon and Pumbaa gasped in horror. "Simba!"

"Kate!" CatDog screamed in horror.

"Manny! Ellie! Hurry and run!" Simba shouted. He and Diego were closer to death than the others.

Manny was able to pull Ellie behind him where the bottom platform somehow connected to the other side and the mammoths, possums, and Pokemon hurried over to safety.

Simba and Diego managed to climb up to their feet and were running to the other side while the rocks underneath them gave away. They were inches away and were about to fall to their deaths. Before they could, Ellie and Manny used their trunks to grab Diego's front paws while Max wrapped his Grass Knot around Simba's left front paw and Kate was helping by using Magical Leaf underneath the lion.

Everything was silent and everyone in the group is still alive.

Kate sighed in relief. "I guess we now know how well the two of us can work together." She said to Max. The Pikachu smiled and nodded in agreement.

"I guess we finally did something right together." Ellie sheepishly said to Manny who smiled in return.

"Uh, guys? I'm proud of how well you can work together, but can you pull me up and then celebrate?" Simba asked nervously.

"Oh, right! Sorry, Simba." Max apologized. He and Kate began to pull Simba up.

"Hey, don't mind me. Just hanging off the edge of a cliff here." Diego chuckled uneasily. Manny and Ellie pulled the tiger up to safety as well.

* * *

After the unexpected balancing act in the canyon, the group finally decided to stop and rest for the night. If they wanted to get to the boat at the end of the valley, all fourteen of them thought it'd be best to get there while well rested.

Sid hummed and carefully placed one more stick on the fire he just made. He then tried to shield his fire when he saw Manny and Ellie smiling and walking by.

Once he knew his fire was safe, Sid dragged a big piece of bark to use as his bed over to where Riolu and Diego were lying. Timon and Pumbaa were already fast asleep with Timon resting on his bestest best friend's belly, both of them were snoring quite a lot.

"Remember the good old days?" Sid asked Diego. Riolu was already asleep and was using the saber as a pillow.

"Which good old days?" Diego asked curiously.

"Oh, you know. Yesterday, last week. Back when the trees went up and down and the ground stayed under our feet." Sid replied, still making his 'bed'. He was using his tail to brush it a bit, accidentally lightly hitting Diego with a little dust that was on the bark.

The saber chuckled when he get what his friend was saying. "Yep. Those were the good days. Possums were possums and mammoths were mammoths. We should get some sleep."

"Yeah. Tomorrow's the day the vulture said we're all gonna die." Right after he said that, Sid instantly fell asleep and was snoring as much as Pumbaa and Timon were.

Nearby, Crash and Eddie were asleep with Crash snoring and Eddie using his brother as a pillow. Not wanting to wake them, Ellie gently picked her brothers up from the ground and placed them upside down to a tree. Their tails automatically latched themselves to the branch.

Manny woke up a bit and saw Ellie gently caress Eddie before she closed up Crash's mouth to get him to stop snoring. Smiling at the scene, Manny went back to sleep while Ellie hung on to the branch by her tail next to her brothers.

Max opened his eyes a little. He was next to a sleeping Simba, using the lion as a pillow. He looked over at Kate and smiled a little when he saw what the Togetic was doing to her sleeping conjoined brothers. CatDog was using their arms as their own pillows and Dog was snoring with his tongue out. Smiling, Kate silently and gently scratched behind Cat's ears before she pushed Dog's tongue into his mouth before closing it. She then gave her brothers each a gentle kiss on the cheek before going to sleep, using CatDog as her own pillow.

Max smiled and went to sleep himself.

Everyone in the group was now sound asleep, otherwise they would've noticed the vulture from before observing them on a different branch. They may have been far behind, but they were getting closer and closer to the boat.

* * *

Hours later, the campfire was out but everyone was still sleeping. Even Sid was still sleeping, he was tossing, turning, and mumbling in his sleep.

He was so far gone in his dreams, he didn't even notice that his bark bed was dragged off before being carried high in the air passed some tall grass and up another rocky hill, yet he began to suck his thumb like a baby.

As he leaned up and yawned, his face briefly hit a tree branch and he was wide awake now and realized he was being carried. "Wait a minute..." He muttered. Once he looked underneath, he was surprised to see mini-sloths carrying the bark on their heads. ""Uh...Can I help you?" The mini-sloths just blinked and smiled at Sid.

Sid looked up and now sat on the bark and saw a lot of mini-sloths emerging and are looking at him in awe. They even bowed to him, one of them was just a second behind.

"Now that's what I call respect." Sid smiled. He was impressed and delighted. Hanging from vines, two more mini-sloths placed a crown made of flowers on his head. "Ooh. Nice."

When he looked ahead, he was amazed to see a rock sculpture in the shape of his head. "Somebody here likes Sid. Who is the decorator? I mean, this is fabulous."

Sid was then tipped over and clumsily fell on his face. As he looked up, a blue female mini-sloth stood in front of him and held two slabs of rock in front of him. "Fire King." As Sid stood up, she gave him the rocks.

"Huh?" Sid looked over at the mini-sloths in front of him. "Fire King? Hmm..." Sid smiled and thought that name had a pretty nice ring to it. "Well, you know, it's about time someone recognized my true potential. Let there be fire!"

After declaring that, Sid expertly sparked fire from the rock which lit up the pile of wood next to him. Then he yelped and dropped the rocks when the flames hit the vines and trailed all the way over to the vines on the sculpture, lighting up the parts that were like the eyes.

"Oooooh!" The mini-sloths were in awe at the light on the sculpture.

Sid was pleased with himself, but then he smelled something burning. Looking down, he saw that he had his foot on one of the burning vines. Sid yelped and held his burning foot. The mini-sloths suddenly mimicked his movement.

"Hey!" Sid was slightly annoyed at being mimicked.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, HEEEY!" The mini-sloths mimicked again and were smiling.

Realization hit Sid once he realized they were still worshiping him. That gave him an idea, so he began to make some movements and the mini-sloths were happily mimicking him.

As Sid and the mini-sloths went on and on, enjoying themselves and Sid felt like he was being truly respected as flowers and vines were being tossed around.

"If only the guys could see me now!" Sid was happy, but since the vines were on him, the mini-sloths held on to tie Sid up. The fun was over for him now. "This is either really good or really bad."

Turns out it was really bad. The mini sloths tied Sid up, placed him back on the bark and rolled him over a cliff over a deep pool of boiling lava.

Once realization hit him again when he saw the lava, Sid screamed in terror. "No, no, no. Me Fire King. Why kill Fire King? A thousand years bad juju for killing Fire King."

To his surprise, the same mini-sloth that gave him the rocks came over holding a torch. "Super heated rock from the Earth's core is surging to the crust, melting ice built up over thousands of years."

"You're a very advanced race. Together, we can look for a solution." Sid suggested hopefully.

"We have one; Sacrifice the Fire King." the leader replied with a smirk.

"Well, that's not very advanced." Sid grumbled.

"Worth a shot." the leader snapped her fingers, giving the others the signal. They kicked the bark over to the lava, much to Sid's horror.

"No! No! Aaaaaaahhhhh!" Sid screamed as he fell towards the lava. The mini-sloths began to cheer before they turned away.

As Sid was falling, some of the vine got caught on a rock, freeing Sid as he spun around and some of the vine was still around his ankle. He was now dangling upside down over the lava. Feeling the heat on his head, Sid screamed before he was launched up away from the lava and landed in the sculpture's nose.

He still felt hot in the head and tried to put his burning head out, but his movements were making the sculpture move and start to break apart.

The mini-sloths gasped when they saw this. "Bad juju!" the mini-sloth tribe leader exclaimed. Since the sculpture was falling apart towards them, the mini-sloths screamed and ran away.

Upon impact to the ground, the nose of the sculpture fell off and rolled away with Sid inside. He was crying out in pain as he rolled back to the others.

* * *

The next morning back at camp, Riolu yawned and stretched his arms and legs before he stood up a bit away from Diego. That's when he noticed that his feet were suddenly wet. "What the...?" Riolu looked down and saw the water he was standing on.

Diego growled a yawn of his own and stretched out. Then he felt something cool and wet. He opened his eyes and saw the water himself. "Water? Water!" He cried out in panic. That woke Cat up instantly.

"Water!? Moisture and water!?" Cat cried out. CatDog then rolled like a wheel, waking up Dog and Kate in the process, and knocked against Timon and Pumbaa, waking the Hakuna Matata duo as well.

Diego jumped up and landed on Manny's back. Manny woke up with a yelp of pain before he shook his friend off, who landed on Simba and Max, and then smacked his side against the tree Ellie and the possums were sleeping on. The three of them landed in the water while Simba and Max were startled awake.

Riolu laughed a little sheepishly at this. "Uh, morning, guys."

Timon looked upset and wet. "And what, pray tell, is so good about this morning that Cat and Diego decided to rudely wake us up?" the meerkat asked in annoyance.

Crash was sitting on the water, that was right up to his neck, and Eddie stood and looked at the water. "Crash, I told you not to drink before bed." Eddie scolded. When standing, the water was only above waist level for the possums and Timon.

Crash quickly stood up to protest. "I didn't do this!" He then realized he made only a tiny little accident. "At least not all of it."

"What's happening?" Ellie asked worriedly. By now, they were all awake and looking at the water around them.

"This is what I was afraid of. We overslept." Max answered.

"Come on, we need to get moving." Simba said urgently.

"What if we're the last creatures left alive? We'll have to repopulate the Earth!" Eddie cried out while Crash was trying to get water out of his ears.

"How? Everyone's either a dude or the female Togetic and our sister." Crash pointed out.

"I don't think we're the last ones alive, Eddie. I've got a good feeling that we've still got time to get to the boat before the flood begins." Pumbaa happily said. Timon was getting up on the warthog's back.

Dog then looked around for someone. "Uh, has anyone seen Sid?"

Said sloth was running over to them. "Oh, hi. Hey, guys. Wow. What a night. You'll never guess what happened to me."

"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you were sleepwalking." Diego remarked half-sarcastically.

"Oh no, no, no. I was kidnapped by a tribe of mini-sloths." Sid explained.

"That was gonna be my second guess." Diego replied in full sarcasm.

"And they worshiped me. I mean, sure, they tossed me into a flaming tar pit, but they worshiped me." Sid added to the explanation.

"Sid, you were dreaming!" Manny grunted in annoyance. "C'mon, the water's rising faster than we're moving." The male mammoth took the lead and the others followed him.

Shocked that no one believed him, Sid tried to convince them again. "I'm telling you, I was kidnapped. I was worshiped, and, and...Guys." Then finally, he gave up and followed his friends. "Oh, fine."

* * *

 **Day three is finally here! The Pride Team better get moving if they want to escape the flood in time! What about the Outsiders and Scrat? Will they be smart enough to find some sort of boat of their own to save themselves from drowning? Things get pretty wet and dangerous in the next chapter! See ya then!**


	9. It's the Flood!

**I know I said I would work on one of my Xenoverse character stories soon, but I'd like to finish up this Pride Team Adventure first. So PLEASE be patient with me some more. After this story is done, I'll take five on the Pride Team Adventures series to work on one of my two Xenoverse stories. Until then, enjoy this wet and danger-filled chapter!**

* * *

Now passing yet another canyon, the Pride Team and the herd were walking at a faster pace passed some dead trees to try and get to the boat in time.

Timon, who was walking next to Riolu, looked behind them and saw that Sid and Pumbaa were lagging behind. "Hey, can't you two go any faster? We're running short on time here!'

Pumbaa panted in exhaustion. "Uh, guys? You think we can slow down a little?" "We're dying here." Sid added. He was just as exhausted as the warthog next to him.

A squawk caught the tired duo's attention. On the trees were vultures and some Mandibuzz smiling evilly at them. "Nice birdies!" Pumbaa cried out. "It was just a figure of speech!" Sid added before he and Pumbaa caught up to the others.

All fourteen of them slowed down and saw that they were surrounded by a whole flock of vultures and Mandibuzz.

"Look at them all. They're just sitting there...watching us." Max whispered, a little nervously.

"I wish I knew what they were thinking." Sid whispered to the Pikachu.

The vulture from two days ago just stared at the group. Then, in a way, Sid got his answer through that very vulture.

" _ **~Food, glorious food! We're anxious to try it~**_ "

Then a female vulture flew over the group to her mate. The group quickly ducked their heads.

" _ **~Three banquets a day, our favorite diet!~**_ "

The two vultures parted to reveal a baby vulture. " _ **~Just picture a mammoth steak. Fried, roasted or stewed~**_ "

Now all of the other vultures and the Mandibuzz began to sing along as well. " _ **~Oh, food, wonderful food, marvelous food, glorious foooooood. Food, glorious food~**_ "

Realizing that they were in trouble once again, the Pride Team and the herd began to run from the vultures and the Mandibuzz trying to kill them while singing.

" _ **~Poached possum served flambe~**_ " One vulture was in front of Crash and Eddie, who were playing. Ellie pulled her brothers away while glaring at the vulture.

A Mandibuzz was flying behind Sid who accidentally landed in a puddle of mud and was beginning to sink. " _ **~Broth made from a sloth~**_ "

More vultures and more Mandibuzz joined her while Diego managed to save Sid from sinking completely. " _ **~Or a saber-tooth soufle~**_ "

" _ **~Why should we be fated to, do nothing but brood, on food, magical food, wonderful food, marvelous food?~**_ " Three vultures were helpful in pushing down a log to act as a bridge for the group to walk on carefully. They started with the possums, then Timon, next the three Pokemon since Kate couldn't take any chances at flying with the vultures and Mandibuzz surrounding them, then Pumbaa, next was CatDog, then Diego, followed by Simba, and finally Ellie and Manny. They all tried their best to duck and avoid falling.

Next thing that happened was that all fourteen of them were sliding down a hill on a big rock slab. CatDog held on to Kate for dear life while twelve of them were screaming in panic. The only two actually enjoying the ride were Crash and Eddie.

" _ **~Food, glorious food!~**_ " The group was now carefully walking across a ledge, then they were on another ledge. Manny and Ellie used their trunks to launch Crash and Eddie to the other side. " _ **~Flesh, picked off the dead ones! Rank, rotten or chewed, soon we'll be the fed ones!~**_ " As they were flying, the possums were covered in feathers from the vultures that were in the way. Soon everyone made it across and continued to move one.

Though, while three Mandibuzz were dancing, Sid and Pumbaa couldn't resist and danced along with them, even though the two of them were dancing the wrong moves.

" _ **~Just thinking of putrid meat, puts us in a mood for food, glorious food, wonderful food, marvelous food, fabulous food, beautiful food!~**_ "

The vultures and Mandibuzz made a rock slide on purpose. Manny and Ellie were each rolling on a boulder. Soon everyone else piled on top of the two mammoths. Simba, Diego, and CatDog were next to each other standing in between the mammoths. Sid was placed on Diego's back thanks to Manny. Ellie placed Pumbaa on Sid's shoulders. Riolu landed on Pumbaa's back, Max was now on Riolu's shoulders, and Kate was now standing on Max's head. Finally, Timon, Crash, and Eddie were on Kate's back and standing on top of each other.

" _ **~Magical food!~**_ " The baby vulture squealed happily. He flew up just as the group rolled over.

" _ **~Glorious FOOOOOOOD!~**_ " The vultures and Mandibuzz concluded. The Pride Team and the herd fell off a cliff. Thinking they were gonna have their 'glorious food', the vultures and Mandibuzz peered over...only to slump in disappointment and annoyance.

The fourteen of them were awkwardly hanging on to a different dead tree, one that was just inches off the ground. "There you go. Now you know exactly what they were thinking." Max deadpanned to Sid. Just after he said that, the branch they were hanging on to snaps and they yelped as they crashed to the ground.

It also made the vultures and Mandibuzz fly away from them.

* * *

About an hour later, the group was now walking up a hill. They were wondering if they were pretty close to the boat by now.

" _ **~Food, glorious food!~**_ " Dog, however, couldn't help but happily sing the song the vultures and Mandibuzz were singing not that long ago. The only one not annoyed was Sid, the sloth was happily listening to the song.

"Dog!" Kate and Cat were getting annoyed by that song, in Cat's case more like agitated.

"What? I like that song." Dog shrugged. Still, he stopped for his brother and sister.

When they finally reached the top, they slowed to a stop when they spotted something in front of them. Up on a giant rock pillar just in front of the other side of the ice wall at the end of the valley, was a giant dead tree on its side. That was the boat that could save everyone in the valley, even the Pride Team and herd.

They made it and even some of the animals were still boarding.

"Hakuna Matata! We made it!" Pumbaa exclaimed softly and in relief.

"Woo-Hoo! We showed those feathered mooks that noting can stop the Pride Team!" Timon cheered happily. Everyone else cheered as well. While Manny and Ellie were laughing in relief, they unknowingly leaned against each other. Realizing this, the two mammoths pulled away in embarrassment while silently looking each other in the eyes.

Max and Kate even unknowingly hugged each other in happiness, but they quickly realized and pulled away from each other. They were looking away from each other while blushing. The echoing sound of the wall back on the other side reminded them all that they had to get going before it's too late.

However, as Ellie took a step forward, she screamed and stepped back when the ground suddenly exploded in front of the group. Crash and Eddie screamed in fright before they ran to hide behind their sister.

"Oh no." Simba whispered in horror. In front of them was a big geyser field with geysers blowing in random directions. This was the last obstacle standing between them and the boat.

"Oh, it's just a little hot water and steam. How bad could it be?" Sid didn't seem that worried about the geysers. That quickly changed when a lone dodo waddled by and then was launched by a geyser underneath him. When the dodo landed, the group saw that it was now a roast dodo.

"You just something involuntary." Dog muttered to Sid in horror.

Cat gulped in fear. "And deadly." Sid even cringed in horror.

Despite the danger, both Max and Manny decided to press on forward. "Come on. Let's go." Max told the others. The Pikachu and the male mammoth began to walk forward, but stepped back and yelped when a geyser nearly hit the two of them.

"Manny, Max, get back. It's a minefield out there!" Diego cried out in warning.

"What other choice do we have?" Max asked seriously. "There's only one way to go. Straight through." Manny agreed.

"Straight through? Are you kidding?" Kate didn't want to go through that unpredictable field at all. Ellie even sided with the Togetc. "I'm with her. We'd like to keep the fur on our bodies, thank you. We'll head back and we'll go around. That's safer."

"No, no. There's no time for that." Max pointed out urgently. "He's right. The dam will burst before we make it. We'll drown." Manny added.

"But if we go through this, we'll get blown to bits." Kate pointed to the geyser fields in annoyance.

"We go forward." Manny insisted.

"We go back." Ellie argued.

"Forward is quicker." Max pointed out.

"Back is safer." Kate argued with Max.

"Forward." Manny and Max argued.

"Back." Ellie and Kate argued back.

"Forward!" Max and Manny said.

"Back!" Kate and Ellie said. Everyone else watched the four of them argue and it was making Crash, Eddie, and Dog scared.

"Guys, can I say something?" Riolu gently interrupted.

"NO!" Manny, Max, Ellie, and Kate angrily snapped. That made Riolu flinch a little while Diego glared in annoyance.

"You are so stubborn and hard-headed." Manny growled to Ellie in sheer annoyance.

"Well, I guess that proves it. I AM a mammoth." Ellie grunted. She then turned away from Manny. "Come on." She then scooped up her bothers and began to walk away.

"You are, without a doubt, the most stubborn Pokemon I've ever met in my life!" Max snapped at Kate in sheer annoyance.

"Well, that just some more proof that I WAS a human being before! And by the way, I take back what I said yesterday! You are the WORST leader I've ever met!" Kate snapped. Max just stood there, even as Kate turned around to CatDog. "Come on. We're going with Ellie." She grabbed Cat's wrist and began to follow Ellie, Crash, and Eddie. Dog even sadly waved goodbye to the others as Kate dragged him and Cat.

Both Manny and Max were shocked, but they shook it off and angrily marched into the geyser fields. "Fine!" They both growled furiously.

"Uh, I don't know about this. Drowning sounds like a much gentler way to go." Pumbaa commented to Timon and Sid in fear. "You got that right, buddy boy. Getting blown to bits just sounds so...sudden." Timon added in fear. He was once again on Pumbaa's back. Sid even placed a paw over his heart and cringed in terror.

Simba, Riolu, and Diego hesitated a little before following Max and Manny to the fields. As Timon, Pumbaa, and Sid began to follow their friends, they yelped when a tiny geyser burst a little next to them. They walked away while Pumbaa and Sid gave it wary looks while Timon just glared at it.

Still angry about Kate and Ellie, Max and Manny mindlessly stormed past the geysers. They weren't paying attention and just one mistake could get the mammoth and the Pikachu killed.

"Oh man! They're gonna get themselves killed if this keeps up!" Riolu cried out worriedly to the other five.

"Manny, wait! Manny!" Sid called out. "Max, come back!" Timon even called out to the leader.

Neither Max nor Manny heard them and kept storming through the fields. They were still so mad, they even notice a geyser steaming up in front of them until it exploded at their faces and knocked them over to the ground.

They were now half unconscious and dazed. The geysers around them didn't make any noises to their ears, they only heard voices in their heads. Manny was hearing about what other were saying about mammoths going extinct while Max kept hearing about Pokemon he's met in the past having a hard time believing he was a human once and also about his leadership qualities.

What they were hearing was making them more terrified and confused. Riolu, Simba, Timon, Pumbaa, Sid, and Diego finally caught up to the two of them and tried to get their attention. But, Manny and Max were still hearing the voices in their heads so they couldn't hear Riolu, Simba, and Diego.

Then finally, they heard Riolu, who was shaking Max by the shoulders. "Max...! Manny...! Max, Manny, come on! We need to get going! NOW!"

Finally returning to reality, Max and Manny realized how many geysers were acting up around them. In true fear, they got up and ran to the side.

Diego shoved Manny in the right direction. "That way!" Simba just grabbed Max, holding him by some of his back fur in his mouth.

They all ran as fast as they could, avoiding the geysers, some of them screaming all the way.

By now, the dam was so thin it could break at any giving moment. The final layers of thick ice crumbled onto the ground and water below.

* * *

Running through the geyser fields took a lot out of them. They were exhausted, Except for Max because he was being carried by Simba. Finally, they made it to a rock pathway to the boat. Sid was pulling himself up, panting in exhaustion. Simba finally let Max down as well.

Manny and Max, their anger now behind them, are now pretty worried for Ellie, Crash, Eddie, Kate, and CatDog. The vultures and the Mandibuzz were flying over the hundreds of animals still trying to board the boat.

The eight of them wasted no time trying to find their six friends in the crowd, they even ignored what the vulture from two days ago was saying to the animals. "Do not leave your children unattended. All unattended children will be eaten."

The group split up to search for their friends, but they still didn't have much luck.

"Hey, have you seen a mammoth?" Simba asked a mouthdigger. "No, sorry." the mouthdigger replied.

Max went over to a female freaky tall animal. "Excuse me, ma'am? Have you seen a mammoth and a Togetic?"

"No, no I haven't." She shook her head.

"Possum, uh, about eleven foot tall?" Riolu asked the same Aardvark Fast Tony spoke to two days ago. "Uh-uh." She shook her head.

"Well, how about a creature that's half-feline and half-canine?" Riolu asked about CatDog. "Uh-uh." She nervously shook her head again.

Manny approached a turtle like guy and tapped his shell. "Hey, buddy. Have you seen a mammoth?"

"I sure have, big as life." the guy replied. He didn't get the real picture.

"Where?" Manny hopefully asked.

"I'm looking at him." the guy smirked.

"Not me!" Manny angrily growled. He then stormed off to continue the search. Sid, Timon, Pumbaa, and Max glared at the turtle.

"Poor guy doesn't know he's a mammoth." the guy just said.

Then everyone stopped when the cracking of the dam grew louder and more intense. They were really becoming nervous now.

* * *

Completely ignoring the dam were Scrat and the three Outsiders, Sneasel, Wynaut, and Snorlax.

They were still near the condor's nest close to the dam. For Scrat, he waited for the right time to get his prized nut. For Sneasel, he was still trying to get the condor's help to deal with the Pride Team. Wynaut and Snorlax finally accepted that the condor wouldn't help.

"Come on, Sneasel. Can't we just find a way to get back to our time period already?" Wynaut asked/complained.

"No way, Wynaut. We're gonna get that lady condor to sink her talons on Max and those other bozos, and that's final!" Sneasel replied. All four of them made it to the edge of the nest, only to find it completely empty, well except for Scrat's nut.

"I think we're a little late this time." Snorlax noticed. "Aha!" Scrat perked up happily and rushed over to his prize. The Outsiders were still on the edge of the nest.

Scrat stopped and looked around to see if the mother and the baby condors were around to attack again.

"Hey, what gives? It's such a nice day today, where could that condor be?!" Sneasel asked in annoyance. Scrat, seeing that the coast was clear, happily scooped up the acorn and hugged it close to him.

Then the four of them heard a loud squawk. When they looked up, they saw that the mother condor was flying away with her baby on her talon.

"Hey, where are they going?" Snorlax asked in confusion. The baby saw the four and made a slice head off gesture with his tongue sticking out.

"Huh? We're about to die?" Wynaut asked in confusion. Sneasel got the message and got pretty nervous. "Wait a minute. What day is this?"

His answer was a rumbling noise and a cracking noise that got their attention. When they looked behind them, they grew scared when they saw large spews of water pouring out through the thin walls that were still on the dam.

"Judging from the condition of that dam, I'm guessing that today is the day of the flood." Wynaut answered.

"Uh, maybe staying here at this spot wasn't such a good idea after all." Sneasel gulped.

"Waaaaagggghhh!" Scrat screamed as soon as the dam finally broke and water began to pour out of the now destroyed dam. It was enough to make Sneasel, Wynaut, and Snorlax let go of the nest. The water flowed very fast across the valley. The waves of water knocked down trees and covered everything in its path.

Scrat, Sneasel, Wynaut, and Snorlax were screaming as they floated in the water. Scrat held his acorn close and is using the nest as his new boat while Sneasel and Wynaut were using Snorlax as their boat. The Outsiders were starting to float away from Scrat.

* * *

Back with the Pride Team, they still had no luck finding their six friends.

"I can't find Kate and Ellie anywhere!" Max cried out in worry.

"Maybe they're already on board." Simba called back, but his heart was saying differently. Then suddenly, the ground shook violently and it terrified everyone in the area. Even Ashley got scared and held her father close while whimpering a little with her dad comforting her.

Soon rocks began to crumble around them. That was when everyone realized that the flood has begun! They began to panic and race over to the boat now. Max and his friends stayed in place to make sure everyone got to the boat safely.

"Hurry! This way!" Simba gestured to the pathway to the boat.

"No pushing! Keep your children as close to you as you can!" Max was on Manny's right tusk and was helping in gesturing to the boat.

"Come on, get moving." Manny added.

* * *

Not far from the path, Kate, CatDog, Ellie, Crash, and Eddie ran when they felt the shock waves. They finally saw the boat as they stood between two rocks.

"There it is!" Ellie called out. "We're almost there!" Kate added.

"Ellie! Ah! Whoa!" Crash screamed nearly dodging the rocks.

Cat looked up all of a sudden, and what he saw made him scream in fear. "AAAAAAHHHHH!" The other looked up and saw a large rock came falling to them. They all screamed and ducked their heads. The two rocks between them caught the big rock, but some parts of the rock managed to hurt Kate by the wings.

"Ow! My wings!" Kate cried out. She fell and landed in Dog's arms when he caught her. "I can't fly with my wings like this."

Behind them more rocks blocked where they came from. They quickly made a run for the exit to the newly made cave...but they weren't fast enough and another big rock closed them into the cave.

"We're trapped!" Dog cried out. All six of them then tried to push the rock out of the way. "Push!" Eddie grunted.

That rock wasn't gonna budge soon. Then suddenly, Ellie spotted a light and saw a hole above her, it was small enough for Crash and Eddie to go through.

"You guys gotta go." Ellie ordered her brothers. Kate and CatDog were confused, but then they saw the hole and knew what Ellie had in mind.

"We're not leaving you!" Crash refused. Eddie easily agreed with his brother.

Ellie, however, just grabbed the possums with her trunk. "I'm not asking!" She then held them to the hole. "Ellie, no!" Eddie pleaded. He and Crash were then pushed through the hole and out of the cave.

Eddie and Crash landed on the ground and knew they had to do something to save Ellie, Kate, and CatDog from drowning in the cave. "Ellie, don't worry! We're going for help!" Eddie called out.

"Stay here!" Crash added. "Duh." Ellie muttered. "Hurry! Please!" Cat pleaded urgently. He didn't want to drown 20,000 years in the past.

With that in mind, Crash and Eddie scurried to the path as fast as their paws could carry them to save their sister and their friends.

* * *

Sneasel and Wynaut were still using Snorlax as a boat as the water they were on kept flowing to the other side of the valley.

"Okay, I admit it! Going back 20,000 years in the past once again is the worst idea I've ever had in my life!" Sneasel cried out.

"Can this day get any worse?" Wynaut held on to Sneasel tightly.

Snorlax looked behind them and saw two familiar sea creatures quickly swimming to them. "If by 'worse', you mean 'Cretaceous and Maelstrom are back and they're gonna eat us!' Then yes!" Snorlax answered.

They looked behind them, and sure enough, Cretaceous and Maelstrom were swimming over to them and have the look in their eyes saying that they were gonna have Outsiders for lunch!

Sneasel, Wynaut, and Snorlax screamed and began to paddle away from the sea duo. "Paddle, guys! Paddle!" Sneasel even cried out to Wynaut and Snorlax.

* * *

Making it to the path, Crash and Eddie hurried to find help among the crowd of scared animals.

"Help us!" Eddie cried out.

"Help!" Crash yelled.

"Somebody, help!" Eddie was beginning to lose hope.

Then suddenly, Crash spotted two familiar faces. "Manny and Max!" There they were, Manny and Max worriedly looking around for their missing friends. Max was even still on Manny's right tusk.

"Manny! Max!" Crash yelled out. He and Eddie raced over to them. Then they finally climbed up Manny's tail and slid down to Manny's left tusk. Manny and Max were surprised, yet relieved, to find the two possums with them.

"Manny! Max!" Crash cried out, urgently.

"It's Ellie, Kate, and CatDog!" Eddie cried out.

Max was both shocked and horrified to hear this. "What!? Where are they?" He urgently asked the possums.

"They're trapped in a cave!" Crash pointed at the direction he and Eddie came from.

Shocked and horrified feelings in both Max and Manny were replaced with determination. They weren't gonna let Kate, CatDog, and Ellie drown.

"Crash, Eddie, lead the way!" Max ordered seriously. He jumped off Manny's tusk and followed after the possums with Manny close behind.

Simba noticed that his friends were going in the opposite direction everyone else is going and realized something. "Guys, I think they know where Ellie, Kate, and CatDog are! Come on!" The lion then followed his friends as did Riolu, Timon, Pumbaa, Sid, and Diego.

When the ten of them could see the cave clearly, they also saw a huge wall of water flowing their way with a sound that sounded like a monster's roar. The eyes of Max, Simba, and Manny widened when they saw the water wall.

They still followed Crash and Eddie towards the cave as quickly as possible. Timon even caught up to the five of them, running on all fours as he did. Still, they weren't as fast as the water, it passed through the canyon and in no time covered the geyser fields.

Max, Simba, Timon, Manny, Crash, and Eddie skidded to a stop to avoid a big falling rock, just over the bridge where the cave, as well as Ellie, CatDog, and Kate, were on the other side. But the wall of water crashed against the cave, it wasn't strong enough to destroy the cave or Kate, CatDog, and Ellie. But, as the six of them were crossing the bridge, the water wall crashed against it and crumbled it to pieces. That made Max, Simba, Timon, Manny, Crash, and Eddie scream loudly in alarm and horror as they fell into the water.

Riolu, Pumbaa, Sid, and Diego stopped on the newly made cliff. They were horrified to see the newly made river with the cave on the other side below them.

In the cave, Kate, CatDog, and Ellie gasped as the water began to rise gently but quickly. Cat even held Dog close in fear.

Crash, Eddie, and Timon were caught against the tides. The possums managed to grab a small tree branch and held on to each other. Timon held on to a branch himself, but on the tree a few feet away from Crash and Eddie.

Gasping and resurfacing from the currents, Max, Simba, and Manny were being carried towards the cave, but needed something to help open up the front of the cave to save Ellie, Kate, and CatDog.

Simba noticed a log floating to them, it looked strong enough to yank the cave door open. "Max, Manny, grab that log!" the lion ordered. Once they all saw it, the Pikachu, the lion, and the mammoth grabbed hold of the log and swam closer to the cave before thrusting it in the hole on the side.

"Ellie!" Manny yelled.

"Manny?" Ellie called out once she, Kate, and CatDog heard the male mammoth.

"Don't worry, Kate! We'll have you, CatDog, and Ellie out of there soon!" Max called out.

"Hurry! The water's rising in here, and I can't fly! I injured my wings!" Kate replied.

Hearing this made Max worried. "Push! As hard as you can!" the Pikachu ordered. The three of them began to push as hard as they can to save their friends.

* * *

The flood water was still rising and Crash, Eddie, and Timon were in danger of drowning.

"HELP!" Timon cried out in fear.

Pumbaa looked determined to save his pal. "Hang on, Timon! I'll save you, bestest best buddy!" "I'll save you!" Sid boldly called out to the possums. Both the warthog and the sloth made to dive...only to smack their heads against a floating chunk of ice. That was enough to knock them both out.

"Great. Who's gonna save them?" Crash groaned in exasperation. When Pumbaa floated over to the meerkat, Timon held on to his friend's tail, praying to Arceus that the warthog doesn't unknowingly let out a fart. Sid floated close to the possums who held his mouth.

Eddie cringed when he smelled Sid's breath. "You really need to brush."

Diego stood there frozen. Riolu looked on in fear, he didn't want his friends to die soon and Max had his paws full for the moment. The Fighting-Type Pokemon looked determined as he turned to Diego. "I'll get them out of this jam! You stay there, Diego! I'll be right back!" Riolu then dived into the water without hitting anything and began to swim over to Timon and Pumbaa.

Knowing that Riolu could use some help, Diego tried to dive in as well, but his fear of water held him back. Shutting his eyes and trying to focus on saving his friends, Diego tried to encourage himself. "Ok, ok, ok. Jump in now!"

He still stood in place due to fear. He didn't want to admit it, but Sid was right. The water really was making him his prey. "Come on, 'fraidy cat. Come on! You can do this, you can do this, you can do this!" Diego scolded himself. The possums nearly lost their grip on Sid, but they managed to grab his tongue.

Timon was having some trouble hanging on to the branch and his pal at the same time, but Riolu was still swimming their way.

"Trust your instincts. Attack the water. I am not your prey. I am not your prey! I am NOT YOUR PREY!" Diego growled at the water. Finally, with a yell, he jumped off the rock and dove into the water.

It was harder than he thought. He managed to resurface, but struggled to stay afloat. Ellie, Kate, CatDog, Max, Manny, and Simba were still trying to remove the rock blocking the cave Kate, Ellie, and CatDog were trapped in, but they didn't have much luck.

Timon lost his grip on the branch and yelped when he was floating on Pumbaa's belly. "Come on, Pumbaa! Snap out of it!" Timon slammed his fists against Pumbaa's stomach.

Apparently it was enough to wake the warthog up and he saw his buddy on his stomach. "Oh, hi, Timon." Pumbaa happily greeted just before Riolu held on to Pumbaa's hind hoof with one paw and the branch with the other.

"I gotcha, guys!" Riolu grunted and pulled the Hakuna Matata duo closer.

"HEEEEELLLP!" Just then, they heard three voices cry out for help.

The three of them looked ahead and saw Sneasel, Wynaut, and Snorlax quickly swimming their way. "Them again?" Timon asked in annoyance. "I thought we were here to take them back to our time." Pumbaa said in confusion.

With a splash, the three Outsiders floated to Riolu. Sneasel held the Emanation Pokemon by his shoulders, looking desperate as he did. "I know we may be enemies here, but you've gotta help us out here!"

"Cretaceous and Maelstrom are back and they're trying to eat us!" Wynaut cried.

That only confused Riolu, Timon, and Pumbaa. "And who are Cretaceous and Maelstrom?" Timon asked with a raised eyebrow.

"THEY'RE Cretaceous and Maelstrom!" Snorlax pointed behind him. Riolu, Timon, and Pumbaa looked ahead of them and only Riolu gasped while Timon and Pumbaa screamed when they saw the two monster fish from yesterday swimming their way. Timon and Pumbaa were quick to swim over to a nearby shore.

Seeing that the enemy needed some help, Riolu decided to help them out. "Okay, you three! Join Timon and Pumbaa on the shore over there!" He pointed to where the Hakuna Matata duo were. The Outsiders wasted no time swimming over to the two of them. "I'll take care of the fish!" Riolu took a deep breath before he dived in to deal with Cretaceous and Maelstrom.

Crash and Eddie were starting to lose their grip on the tree while they held on to Sid. Diego was sinking slightly, but he was tying to do what Sid showed him last night. "Attack the water. Stalking the prey. Claw. Kick." As he kept trying, he was looking more desperate. "Even babies can do it. Come on! Claw. Kick. Claw! Kick!"

Finally, Diego was getting into it and staying afloat, much to his amazement. "Hey! I'm stalking the prey!"

Timon and Pumbaa saw what the saber was doing just as the Outsiders joined them. "Timon, look!" Pumbaa told his pal.

"Yeah! Show the water who's the TRUE predator!" Timon cheered. The Outsiders didn't see, they were too busy drying themselves.

Under the water, Cretaceous swam over and tried to chomp Riolu, but the Emanation Pokemon punched him away with his Ice Punch. He swam up to avoid Maelstrom who was attacking from behind and got the big green fish with his Vacuum Wave attack.

Cretaceous managed to smack Riolu with his tail fin and the Fighting-Type smacked against the tree Timon held on to. He then mentally gasped when Cretaceous and Maelstrom swam over to him. Filled with determination, Riolu used the tree behind him to launch himself out of the water and into the air.

Riolu tried to go for another Vacuum Wave on the fish. "Okay, take...THIS!" Instead of a Vacuum Wave, Riolu surprised even himself by launching a ball of focus energy into the water. It exploded when it made contact with Cretaceous and Maelstrom. Riolu managed to land where Timon, Pumbaa, Sneasel, Wynaut, and Snorlax were standing while Cretaceous and Maelstrom swam away in anger.

"Wow! Riolu, that was really amazing!" Pumbaa commented. "Yee-ha!" Timon happily added.

"What was that?" Sneasel asked, dumbfound by what Riolu just used. "That was even more powerful than his Vacuum Wave." Wynaut added. "He must've learned a new attack while fighting Cretaceous and Maelstrom." Snorlax said.

Riolu looked at his paws in awe. "If I didn't know any better...I'd say I just used Focus Blast on those fish."

Eddie lost his grip as the tree was pulled into the water. Crash slipped, but Diego made it and grabbed the possum's tail with his mouth. His hind legs held on to the tree for support.

The currents, however, were too strong and Crash lost his grip on Sid and was flung to Diego's back. Sid and Eddie were now slowly sinking into the water. "Eddie!" Crash exclaimed in horror, clinging to Diego.

The tiger and possum dove into the water to save Sid and Eddie.

Diego, Crash, Eddie, and Sid, who was regaining consciousness slower than Pumbaa did, surfaced on to the shore Riolu, Timon, Pumbaa, and the three Outsiders were on. Riolu, Timon, and Pumbaa helped the sloth, the saber, and the possums out of the water.

"Awesome job, Diego!" Timon happily said.

"That was amazing! You've showed that you're definitely not the water's prey!" Pumbaa added.

"This has been quite a day. I've just learned Focus Blast and Diego kicked water's butt." Riolu said in amazement.

"Nothing to it. Most animals can swim as babies, you know." Diego replied in exhaustion.

While smiling at what his friend, Sid decided to tell him something he left out. "Yeah, but not tigers. I left that part out."

The others just stared at the sloth, dumbfound and in shock and disbelief. Is Diego the first ever saber-tooth tiger that can actually swim? Now that's something for the history books!

* * *

 **Here you go! The flood has begun, Diego overcame his fear of water and can swim now, and now Riolu can use the Fighting-Type attack Focus Blast! The next chapter will be the last one! See you then!**


	10. The Past is Safe

**This is it, Pride Team fans! The last chapter of the Pride Team's second Ice Age adventure! And like I promised to my other fans, after this chapter, I'll put the Pride Team Adventures on hold to continue one of my Xenoverse stories. Now then, enjoy the last meltdown chapter, folks!**

* * *

Max, Simba, and Manny were still trying to push the log to move the rock in order to save Kate, CatDog, and Ellie. Problem is that the log is now underwater. Without much of a choice, Max, Simba, and Manny held their breath and dove into the water to continue pushing.

By now, the water in the cave went up to Ellie's neck. The female mammoth herself poked a hole with her trunk to take in a good amount of air. Kate was now on Ellie's head while CatDog were on her back.

Cat shook and trembled as he looked down at the rising water. "Oh, please let Max and the others save us!" Cat was praying to any of the Legendary Pokemon out there.

Even underwater, Max, Manny, and Simba still couldn't get the log to open up the cave. They were starting to believe that hope was lost and swam back up to get some air.

Riolu's group, plus the three Outsiders, ran up to the last highest rock platform that was still above the water when they noticed their three leader-like friends next to the cave their other four friends are stuck in.

"There they are!" Pumbaa pointed to Max, Manny, Simba and the cave trapping Ellie, Kate, and CatDog. The others, even Sneasel, Wynaut, and Snorlax looked worried.

Manny noticed Ellie's trunk sticking out of a hole in the cave. "Ellie, hold on to me!" He held her trunk with his trunk. Ellie was very relieved to find out Manny wouldn't leave her side.

Not one to give up that easily, Max turned his head to those on the rock platform. "We need help! Manny, Simba, and I aren't strong enough to get the cave open ourselves!"

Knowing what lurks in the water, Sneasel looked at the Pikachu like he was a crazy Electric-Type. "I'm not dipping a single toe in that water! Cretaceous and Maelstrom are still down there!"

"What?" Max asked in confusion. He and Simba were holding on to Manny's tusks for support.

To answer the question, something grabbed Manny by the tail and began to drag him, Max, and Simba underwater. It also forced Manny to let go of Ellie. The female mammoth panicked when she felt Manny's grip slip away. In fact, Kate and CatDog panicked with her as they were finally submerged underwater.

Max and his two friends quickly held their breath as Cretaceous kept his hold on Manny's tail as he pulled the three of them further underwater. They panicked when they saw Ellie's trunk being pulled back into the cave.

Manny, Simba, and Max were finally free, but they were pretty deep underwater. To make things worse, Cretaceous and Maelstrom were circling around the three of them. Their eyes widened in horror when they saw that it was same fish from yesterday.

Maelstrom swam up to them to attack. He hit the trio who grunted and kept holding their breath. Cretaceous attacked them from the other side. Cretaceous made to attack the three of them again, but Manny kicked him away. This bought them enough time to swim back up to the surface and then they gasped for much needed air.

While relieved to see that their friends were safe, Riolu, Timon, Pumbaa, Sid, Diego, Crash, and Eddie noticed that the Pikachu, the lion, and the male mammoth were still in some danger.

"Max, Simba, Manny! Look out, behind you!" Riolu warned. He and the others saw that Cretaceous and Maelstrom were coming to attack once again.

Max, Manny, and Simba glared at the fish coming their way, and then an idea came to Max. "Guys, follow my lead!" He informed Manny and Simba before he held his breath and dove into the water again. In confusion, Manny and Simba followed their friend underwater anyway. Cretaceous and Maelstrom dove after them.

When Max motioned to the log in the rock cave, Manny and Simba knew what the Pikachu had in mind now. They swam, making it look like they were having trouble doing so, to the log and held on to it as they glared at the two fish coming their way. Seeing their prey trapped like underwater rats, Cretaceous and Maelstrom opened their jaws for the kill.

That's just what Max was hoping for. He, Manny, and Simba swam up just before the fish could get them. Cretaceous and Maelstrom pushed hard on the log and unknowingly opened up the cave. Max then used his Electro Ball on the rock so that it would fall on top of Cretaceous and Maelstrom. The rock fell on top of the two fish that let go of the log and the heavy weight of the rock made Cretaceous and Maelstrom sink into the darkness below...to their deaths.

Max, Simba, and Manny stared at the spot where the sea enemies had sunk before they turned their attention to the open cave next to them.

* * *

Back on the rock platform, Riolu, Timon, Pumbaa, Sid, Diego, Crash, Eddie, and even Sneasel, Wynaut, and Snorlax looked out on the water with worried looks on their faces.

Just then, two familiar trunks emerged from the water and sucked in as much air as possible. Max and Kate were next to emerge and finally Simba who had CatDog on his back. They were gasping for air as well.

"There they are!" Crash exclaimed happily. The others saw them as well.

"Wow, they defeated Cretaceous and Maelstrom?" Sneasel asked in shock.

"Yeah!" Sid cheered. Then he shared a high-five with Eddie.

"Woo-Hoo!" Timon cheered happily. Manny, Max, and Simba were helping Ellie, Kate, and CatDog to the rock platform the others were on.

The others rushed in to help. Those who had arms helped pull Ellie to the platform. Riolu, however, pulled Max and Kate out of the water. Simba and Manny were able to get on the platform on their own with CatDog still on the lion's back. Seeing that their sister was still alive, Crash and Eddie hugged her in relief. "We thought we'd never see you again." Eddie told her.

Ellie was glad that Crash and Eddie found help and looked up at Manny who smiled at her in relief.

The others smiled at the two mammoths. Then Max and Kate turned to each other. "Kate, I'm sorry for what I said." Max suddenly apologized.

Kate quickly realized what the Pikachu meant and shook her head. "No, Max. If anyone should apologize, it should be me. I'm sorry about what I said to you back in front of the fields. I didn't mean it when I said you were the worst leader. In fact, I feel the exact opposite about you." She smiled warmly at Max. "In my opinion, you're about the best leader I've ever met."

Max was surprised, but still he smiled warmly at the Togetic who was once a human herself. CatDog smiled when they saw that their sister made up with their leader.

"We're gonna live!" Sid cheered happily.

They may have saved each other, but the seventeen of them forgot that they were too late to board the boat. To make things worse, they saw that the water was still rising up to their platform.

"We're gonna die!" Sid wailed in dismay and slumped.

Seeing no way out of this, they tried to stay afloat or out of it. Sneasel and Wynaut climbed up to Snorlax's head, Sid, Crash, Eddie, Max, Kate, and Riolu climbed up Manny and Ellie's backs, Diego and Simba tried to not become submerged and CatDog were hanging on to Simba in fear.

Suddenly thousands of screams caught their attention. "Now what's up?" Wynaut asked. They all turned to see the pillar supporting the boat crumbled underneath it, tipping the giant tree into the water. The tree was able to stay afloat with relieved animals on it.

"Hey! The boat's leaving without us!" Cat cried out. He and the other sixteen looked on as the water kept rising.

Unaware to anybody, the condor's nest was floating gently in the water, but it was now empty. Why? Because Scrat didn't want to risk sinking on the nest and drowning. Right now, he was climbing up the ice wall, digging and pulling his acorn as a make-shift ladder to climb up higher and higher. He was already halfway up the wall and didn't plan on stopping until he got to the top.

The water was now beginning to engulf the Pride Team, the herd, and the Outsiders. They were running out of time.

Sneasel gulped in fear. "I never thought I'd go out like this."

"Drowning in a flood made from the melting ice of the Ice Age?" Wynaut asked.

"No, with our enemies that kicked us out of the Pride Lands." Sneasel answered.

Finally, thrusting the acorn at the edge of the top, Scrat pulled himself up to the top of the ice wall. He leaned on his acorn and panted in exhaustion.

However, due to his weight on his prized nut, Scrat had the acorn pushed deeper into the ice. He gasped in horror when he saw that the ice began to crack. His eyes widened when he saw the ice cracking towards the other side of the wall. And the ice cracked down towards the water thanks to Scrat's footprints and acorn marks.

The crack went into the water and made a couple of bubbles. Then everything was silent. This made Scrat whimper. After a few seconds of silence, the ice wall began to crack in half right underneath Scrat's feet.

Scrat screamed and nearly fell in between, but he managed to hold on to both sides and catch his acorn with his foot.

Hearing a cracking sound, and with no idea who was responsible, Max and the other sixteen turned to their left. To their confusion, the wall was began to crack and slowly drift apart.

"What's going on?" Dog asked the others.

"I don't know!" Riolu answered honestly.

Pumbaa then noticed something else happening. "Look!" He pointed at what he was looking at. The water was flowing into the crack and draining from where they were standing.

As the ice drifted further and further away, Scrat was feeling the pain of his arms stretching along, but he kept his grip on the drifting ice. He then became a ball within himself. With his feet sticking into his body, he lost his grip on his acorn. When he tried to reach it, he felt the grip of his left hand slipping. He lost his grip, and while he was back to normal, he began to fall down between the drifting ice. He screamed as he and his acorn fell down, then he landed in the flowing water that was flowing underneath him.

* * *

While they may not know what happened, Max's group and the three Outsiders looked on as the water drained so fast that in no time, there was nothing left of the flood water except for some puddles and the original lakes came back as well. The flood was now over!

Smiling at the unbelievable stroke of luck they've just had, all seventeen of them climbed off each other and began to walk down to the ground. Kate quickly remembered that she can use Roost and used it to heal herself, so now she was happily flying next to her friends and her brothers again. The nearly sunset was seen between the valley's new doorway. The boat landed on the ground next to it. While all of them were confused by what just happened, all of the animals on board happily got off in relief. But...the molehog grandpa from before wouldn't leave, even as his grandsons were trying to get him to let go of the boat.

Next to the boat, Fast Tony was rowing on Stu's shell before he landed on dry land again. "Stu, we made it. We're gonna live!" He exclaimed happily. He then remembered that his assistant has been dead since day one of the flood threat. He still smiled anyway. "Well...I am, anyway."

As they passed James playing tag with his friends again, Riolu, Timon, Pumbaa, Sid, Diego, and CatDog paused in their steps. They were in the middle of their own conversation.

"I may not know what exactly happened, but I'm just glad that the flood's over now." Cat said happily.

"What do you guys think made that wall crack anyway?" Pumbaa asked in confusion.

Timon just waved it off. "Ah, who cares? It's not important. Let's just be happy that we didn't die a watery death."

"This may have been our first adventure where none of us saved the day, but I'm fine with it. An adventure is an adventure no matter what." Riolu happily said.

"You know, I'm thinking about starting a swim school." Sid said.

Dog smiled at his sloth friend. "Great idea, Sid! Uh, what are you gonna call it?"

"Sid's Squids." Sid answered. He imagined his new swim school already while the others smiled at the suggestion. But, when the sloth looked down, he screamed before quickly climbing over Diego and hid behind him. The saber and the other five flinched in great surprise. In front of them was the tribe of mini-sloths that took Sid last night.

"The mini-sloths were real?" Riolu asked in disbelief.

"Unbelievable!" Cat said.

"Sid was telling the truth about them all along." Pumbaa added.

"All hail Fire King!" the leader of the tribe proclaimed. She and the other mini-sloths bowed down to Sid who awkwardly walked out from behind Diego.

"Fire King?" Timon and Cat shared dumbfound looks while Diego gave his sloth friend a raised dumbfound eyebrow.

"Uh...hi?" Sid weakly waved.

"Hi!" the mini-sloths shot up and mimicked Sid once more. The seven friends shared uneasy glances before they turned back to the mini-sloth tribe.

"Fire King avert flood. Join us, O great and noble flaming one." the leader and the rest of the tribe thought Sid stopped the flood with some sort of 'fire power'.

Hearing this made Sid smirk at the idea. The others frowned in concern.

Diego then decided to say something to the tribe. "Whoa! No, not so fast there, okay? You make a quality offer. But Fire King has a prior commitment. His herd needs him. He is the gooey, sticky stuff that holds us together." Sid cringed at first, but then he and the others smiled at what Diego was trying to say. "He made this herd, and we'd be nothing without him." the saber himself concluded while giving his sloth friend a warm friendly smile. Still he felt embarrassed, but he respected Sid as a friend and part of a true family.

Sid felt emotional at what Diego said, and even more when he saw his other five friends nodding in agreement. "You mean it?" He then gave Diego a hug, much to the tiger's further embarrassment.

"Sid, Sid! I-" Diego then sighed and tried to push Sid away. "That doesn't mean 'want to touch'." Still, Sid kept hugging the embarrassed tiger. Riolu and the other four saw that the mini-sloths were mimicking Sid one more time and hugging each other.

That's when Max, Kate, Simba, Manny, Ellie, Crash, Eddie, Sneasel, Wynaut, and Snorlax walked over to the other seven and they were confused by all the hugging.

"Don't ask." Diego sighed in defeat. "Don't worry." Sneasel replied.

Just then, Max's ears twitched when he and the others heard a distant sound coming from the newly made entrance. The sun was shining through and the rumbling scared some birds away. Then they saw shadowy figures coming into the valley. Manny squinted his eyes to get a better look.

Approaching the valley...was actually a large herd of mammoths, plus some Mamoswine. This amazed the Pride Team, the herd, the Outsiders, and even the other animals in the valley. It turns out that mammoths weren't extinct after all, they were just on the other side of the ice wall and the other side of the valley, just like what Cat said yesterday.

Max, Riolu, Simba, Timon, Pumbaa, Sid, Diego, Kate, CatDog, Crash, Eddie, Sneasel, Wynaut, and Snorlax moved aside and watched the mammoths and Mamoswine walk past.

The other amazed animals moved aside while Manny and Ellie walked over before stopping in the middle. Some of the mammoths and some of the Mamoswine were kinda surprised to see two mammoths already in this valley, but the herd just kept on walking.

"We're not the last ones anymore!" Ellie cheered happily. She then turned to follow the mammoth and Mamoswine herd, but she stopped and turned her head to see that Manny just turned and watched her. "You're not coming?"

"You want to go with them?" Manny asked. He tried to not sound disappointed.

Ellie smiled and approached Manny. "I am a mammoth. I should probably be with a mammoth. Don't you think?" By now the other animals walked away to return to their homes.

As much as he loved Ellie, Manny thought that maybe it was best that they parted ways now that the danger of the flood is over. He just didn't want to risk a repeat of what happened to his first wife and child. "Yeah, unless..."

"Unless?" Ellie urged gently.

"Unless, I...I just wanna say...I need to tell you..." Manny tried, but then he sadly concluded what he had to say. "I hope you find everything you're looking for."

Hearing this made Ellie realize that the male mammoth in front of her was saying goodbye. "You too." She replied sadly. She then walked off to join the mammoths and the Mamoswine.

Max and the others, minus the Outsiders who were helplessly confused, were shocked when they realized that this was goodbye. Crash and Eddie didn't really want to leave their friends, but they couldn't leave their mammoth sister either.

The Pride Team, Sid, and Diego looked at the heartbroken Manny before they turned to the sad possum twins since they knew the two of them had to go too.

In sadness, Crash tapped his chest twice and gestured two fingers at the team before he walked off to catch up to Ellie. The others waved at Eddie, even Simba, Pumbaa, and Diego smiled sadly. Eddie waved back sadly before he ran with Crash to catch up with Ellie.

The Outsiders realized that this was becoming an emotional moment for the Pride Team who looked back at Manny who was sadly looking at his reflection in a puddle in front of him.

"Boy, and I thought I was blue." Wynaut muttered sadly.

Despite being enemies, Sneasel thought of a way to repay Max for saving them. So he walked over to the Pikachu and placed a clawed hand on his shoulder. This made Max look at him in confusion. "You know, just before the big battle for Pride Rock, you and your lion friend said that you put your past behind you in order to look into the future."

Max raised a confused eyebrow at his enemy. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that someone should tell your big sad friend to do the same. Don't you think?" Sneasel smiled a little.

While he didn't know why Sneasel was being nice to him now, Max knew that the Outsider was right. Max, Riolu, and Simba put the past behind them and looked forward to the future together and they were happy with the lives they have now. So now, someone needs to give Manny the same advice that Max, Riolu, and Simba were given before.

Manny kept looking at his reflection, but then he noticed Max's reflection in the puddle. "Manny?" Max waited until he got Manny's attention. "You've seriously came a long way since we met, and I'll let Sid get credit for that, but you've gotta put the past behind you in order to have a future. Your family would've wanted you to move on."

Manny was silent, but with the expression and encouragement coming from his friend, he realized that the leader was right. The only other ones who approached Manny were Riolu, Sid, and Diego.

"Go on, Manny. Go after her." Riolu encouraged.

"It's okay. We'll always be here for you." Sid may not like the fact that his first friend was leaving, but he was still gonna smile for him.

Manny smiled emotionally at his four friends. "I'll keep in touch."

"Yeah, yeah. You're a good friend. Point made. Now, go on. Scat." Diego was emotional himself, but he still smiled and motioned Manny to Ellie.

Nodding and giving all of his friends a mental goodbye, Manny hurried to catch up with Ellie. He silently thanked Max, Riolu, Sid, and Diego for opening his eyes and to move on. It's now time for him to begin a new life.

"Hey, where's he going?" Snorlax asked in confusion.

Simba smiled in understanding. "To start a happy new life with Ellie."

Dog looked on in sadness. "Our Manny's growing up so fast."

A sniffle was heard and they turned to see that Cat was wiping his eyes. "What? I just have something in my eye."

"Ellie! Ellie!" Manny called out to Ellie, breaking into a run.

Ellie heard the call and turned around to try and see Manny again. Crash and Eddie were on her back. "Manny?" She cried out. The possums got off to give their sister a moment.

Ellie jumped a little when she saw Manny in front of her. The male mammoth was hanging on a tree upside down by his tail...like a possum would. "Ellie, I don't want us to be together because we have to. I want us to be together because we want to. And I want to be with you, Ellie." He told her with a smile.

Hearing this made Ellie beam a huge smile.

"So, what do you say?" Manny asked a bit awkwardly.

"Oh, Manny. I thought you were going-" Ellie flinched when Manny crashed to the ground when the branch snapped. "Whoa!"

Manny sighed in embarrassment. Ellie just chuckled and gently moved the branch from Manny's face. "You're possum enough for me."

Smiling in return, Manny stood up. The two of them then nuzzled each other lovingly and locked their trunks together.

The mammoths and the Mamoswine stopped and saw what the two mammoths were doing. The mammoths were trumpeting their happiness for the new couple while the Mamoswine gave off their own cheer. "MAAAAAAAMOOOOO!"

Crash and Eddie were happy and emotional, and now they were breaking down, crying. Crash even blew his nose with Eddie's tail. Eddie noticed after wiping away a tear.

Max and the rest of his team that came with him smiled at the new happy couple, and now it was time for them to return to their own time period with the three Outsiders standing next to them.

"Well, I guess it's time for me and my team to get going too. We've gotta get those three back home." Max pointed to Sneasel, Wynaut, and Snorlax. The three of them looked like they've had enough of being 20,000 years in the past. "Sorry we can't go with you guys. Are you two going to be okay?" The Pikachu then asked Sid and Diego.

Sid shrugged sadly. "We'll be fine, Max. It's just me and Diego now. Two bachelors knocking about in the wild. Woo-hoo." He replied in good nature. He and Diego began to walk away to leave the valley as part of migration.

"Fine. But I'm not gonna carry you. I still have my pride, you know." Diego insisted to Sid with a smirk.

"Oh, come on, buddy, for old time's sake." Sid pleaded with his paws clasped together.

"I'll carry him!" Manny's voice startled everyone, Sid was suddenly grabbed in the neck by Manny's trunk. Manny then placed Sid on his back.

"Manny?" Max asked in surprise. "Ellie?" Kate asked in equal surprise.

"But your herd's leaving." Simba reminded the mammoth, puzzled.

"We are now!" Manny replied happily.

Max looked really happy to see that Manny wanted to stay with his friends AND his love after all. "Well, we need to get going. So, until we meet again."

"Will that be soon?" Ellie asked hopefully.

Kate nodded. "It will be, someday. So long."

The herd waved goodbye to the Pride Team and began to walk away from the valley.

"Shotgun!" Crash happily cried out. He and Eddie slid off Ellie's trunk and landed on Diego's back. Instead of trying to push the possums off, Diego just smiled and let the possum twins ride on his back. The six of them began to leave the valley while the Pride Team watched them go.

"Manny, who do you like better? Me or Diego?" Sid asked.

"Diego. It's not even close." Manny replied, half sarcastically.

Diego laughed. "Aha! Told ya."

"Manny, you can't choose between your kids!" Ellie scolded.

"He's not my kid. Not even my dog. If I had a dog, and my dog had a kid, and the dog's kid had a pet, that would be Sid." Manny explained, also half sarcastically.

"Can I have a dog, Manny?" Sid asked the male mammoth.

"No." Manny answered.

"Ellie, can I have a dog?" Sid asked the female mammoth hopefully.

"Of course you can, sweetie." Ellie happily replied.

"Ellie, we have to be consistent with him." Manny gently warned.

The Pride Team smiled as they saw their six Ice Age friends migrate from the valley.

"They're gonna have a happy life together. They're living happily ever after." Pumbaa happily said.

"What book did you get that from?" Timon asked with his arms crossed and a raised eyebrow.

"Can we please go now? I promised Banzai I'd play cards with him back at the Elephant Graveyard." Sneasel said impatiently.

A portal suddenly appeared in front of them. "Yeah, we can go. Our ride's here." Riolu happily said.

"How did that get here?" Snorlax asked in confusion.

Simba shrugged, "I guess Rafiki and Celebi figured out that we finally got you guys to come back to our time period with us."

"So...that's really our ticket back to the present?" Sneasel asked carefully.

"Yeah." Max nodded.

"Make room! I'm going in! DEAL ME IN, BANZAI!" Sneasel happily jumped into the portal.

"Hey! I wanna see our hyena friends too!" Wynaut rushed into the portal. Snorlax silently jumped in after them.

Max chuckled and shook his head. "Come on, guys. We'd better follow them." As the others nodded, Max, Riolu, Kate, CatDog, Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa jumped into the portal to return to their own time.

Just as Fast Tony looked at the portal in confusion, it closed up. Despite his confusion about the strange portal, Fast Tony just shrugged and walked off to try and sell something else.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a mysterious place surrounded by clouds, Scrat emerged and looked around him in confusion.

The last thing he remembered was being carried by the water from the flood. Next thing he knew, he's surrounded by fluffy white and light yellow clouds.

He scurried around to find a way out of here. Behind him, a flock of dead dodos sang a chorus before they disappeared. That made Scrat whimper, he was getting scared.

Scrat looked behind him as he walked forward, so he wasn't looking where he was going. He then hit his head on something hard and flung backwards, landing on his back.

Standing up and groaning, Scrat tried to regain his senses. Blinking in surprise, he saw that what he hit was a big golden gate with an acorn design on top of it.

The gates slowly opened up to welcome Scrat in because he unknowingly gave his life to save thousands of other lives.

Confused at first, Scrat gasped when he looked forward. There were a bunch of acorns as far as the eye could see. Now realizing that he was dead, Scrat sighed happily and slowly walked forward, passing the open gate.

When he was near two acorns, he happily scooped them up, then he happily scooped up some more and hugged them in happiness.

What he saw next made Scrat drop the acorns he was holding. A giant acorn was hovering in front of the light. Scrat clasped his paws together and his eye pupils briefly turned to acorns. Then Scrat happily danced his way to the acorn slowly.

He was about to touch it...but he suddenly found himself frozen firmly in place. In frustration, Scrat tried to lay as much as a finger on the giant acorn, but then a strong wind began to pull Scrat away.

Scrat screamed and tried to pull himself back in, but he was being pulled back from heaven. He was pulled back in front of the gate that just closed up, but he held on tightly. He didn't want to leave this paradise!

His grip was beginning to slip. Then he finally lost his grip and began to fall from the skies. "WAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" He screamed as he did. Then, his world went black.

* * *

Feeling water leave his lungs, Scrat felt disoriented and exhausted. Groaning and slowly opening his eyes, he saw a mouth pulling away from him. Kneeling over him was none other than Sid, who just wiped his mouth with his arm.

"I saved you, little buddy!" Sid happily informed Scrat.

Scrat jerked into a sitting position after hearing that and realizing what the sloth did to him. In disgust, Scrat wiped his tongue and spat out a little bit from Sid's 'kiss of life'.

Then, he realized that Sid revived him...and took him away from his acorn paradise in heaven. Narrowing his eyes, Scrat shot to his feet to get revenge. "Aaaah!" He even gave out a battle cry.

"Calm down." Sid tried to say, but Scrat knocked him away. Sid ran as he was trying to reason with Scrat. The angry saber-tooth squirrel was having none of that and kept kicking Sid's butt.

Both of them disappeared over the hills because Sid was trying to get back to his herd as quickly as possible.

* * *

In the jungle, 20,000 years in the present, Sneasel, Wynaut, and Snorlax popped out of the portal and they looked around them.

Sneasel took a deep breath. "Ah, home at last."

"Oh boy, I can't wait until we tell our hyena friends what happened to us!" Wynaut happily said.

"I'd like to meet these friends of yours." Snorlax then looked scared. "Uh, they're not gonna try and eat me when they see me, are they?"

"Relax, Big Boy. Wynaut and I will put in a good word. We'll make sure Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed don't eat you. Come on." Sneasel, Wynaut, and Snorlax then walked away from the portal to the Elephant Graveyard.

Just after the Outsiders left, Max, Riolu, Simba, Timon, Pumbaa, Kate, and CatDog were out of the portal that closed behind them.

"Well, we're back." Riolu happily said. He and the others looked around the Pride Lands.

Dog then noticed that Outsiders walking away. "Hey! The troublemakers are walking away from us!"

Max just waved it off. "Let'em go, Dog. I have the feeling that those three are gonna be doing some serious relaxing once they get back to the Elephant Graveyard. And I suggest we have a little relaxing time of our own."

"Yeah, we've had some pretty long days. We should get back to the others." Simba agreed.

"I think they're still back at Pride Rock." Timon guessed.

"Well, let's go. We should probably meet up with them." Max suggested. The eight of them began to walk back to Pride Rock.

"Guys? Do you think we'll be able to see Manny, Ellie, Sid, Diego, Crash, and Eddie again?" Pumbaa asked the others hopefully.

"I'm sure that if another event calls for us to travel back in time again, we'll be able to see them again." Riolu assured.

"I have to admit, it was kinda fun hanging out with them and all. But, I don't think I'm in a rush for another time travel adventure." Cat said, but his face was saying differently.

"Cat, are you sure about that?" Simba asked knowingly.

Cat looked kinda nervous. "Well, time travel does kinda tend to...make me sick! Yeah, that's it."

Simba smirked and got closer to Cat. "Now, Cat. You wouldn't happen to be lying to a lion now, are you?"

Pumbaa and Dog laughed happily at that. "That's a good one, Simba!" Dog laughed happily. Max, Kate, and Riolu were laughing along as well.

"Oh, you like that one, huh?" Simba asked with a smile.

"Carnivores, oy!" Timon sighed and slapped his forehead a bit.

Max was busy laughing, he didn't even notice Kate looking at him with a soft smile. What made him finally notice was when Kate kissed him on the cheek.

Max blinked as he looked at the smiling Togetic in front of him. "That was for saving my life a second time." Kate said softly.

Max smiled at Kate in return. "Nothing to it. We're the only human-turned Pokemon on the planet, it's best to stick together. Don't you think?"

Kate nodded, "Definitely."

Max and Kate just looked each other in the eyes, they didn't realize they were slowly leaning closer to each other. They were just about a lips distance away from each other and their eyes were almost closed when...

"Hey! Max, Kate!" The two human-turned Pokemon snapped out of their trance and turned to see their friends ahead of them and it was Riolu that called out to them. "We're ready to head back to Pride Rock! Aren't you two coming with us?"

"Coming, Riolu!" Max replied. The Pikachu waited until the other six began to walk away again before he sighed. "Riolu. You learn to love him."

Kate giggled. "Come on. We should catch up to them."

Max waited a couple of seconds before he smiled and nodded. "Couldn't agree more, Kate."

Kate gave her wings a rest and walked side-by-side with Max. The two human-turned Pokemon looked up at the sky and unknowing held hands as they walked behind their friends.

 **The End**

* * *

 **Well, there you have it. The second Ice Age adventure for the Pride Team is now over! And as promised, I will now put the Pride Team Adventures on hold to focus on my two Xenoverse story series: The X-Pirates & Pokemon Super: Black & White. However, while I am doing so, I would truly appreciate it if you guys would not post questions as reviews asking me about what pairings and what to expect in some sort of wild guess. Yes, Great Saiyaman54, I'm talking to you. Until then, see you guys in one of my Xenoverse stories!**


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